Establishing quality online: supporting productive academic teams

Quality online education requires successful management of resources and services. This paper examines the increasing need to support productive academic teams and foster collaboration in developing a high quality online environment. The paper is based on a study into academic support services and collaboration at Deakin University. The provision of quality support was found to be increasingly challenging given the complexity of the online university environment. A number of recommendations arise out of the study including some practical changes to service, the need to commit to innovation, the importance of frameworks and standards as well as a range of broader cultural, organisational and political changes.

Academic performance and persistence of on- and off- campus engineering and technology students

A study of more than 9000 unit enrolments in an Australian engineering program found that: the off-campus withdrawal rate was close to twice that for on-campus students; whether a student withdrew or not was highly correlated to mode of study; the rate of withdrawal was significantly different between the two student groups; the grade distribution for completing students was significantly different between the two groups; the mean final grade was significantly higher for off-campus students; the failure rate for off-campus students was significantly lower; and the overall wastage rate (withdrawn rate plus fail rate) was significantly higher for off-campus students.

Getting abstracted: teacher educators as research writers

While the term 'early career' researcher, is a familiar identity label within competitive Australian Research Council grant writing and bidding, it is a strange appellation in Australian Faculties of Education, where many early career academics have, in fact, carried out successful professional careers in education for 10-15 years before they embark on mid-career doctoral work. In this sense, they are more mid than early career. While they are not novices, however, they are often positioned as beginners with regard to accessing the journal, conference and other discourse communities of the academy. This paper explores the tensions and anxieties experienced by mid-career researchers in teacher education as they begin to publish from their dissertations and extend the audience for their doctoral work. It focuses on the writing of abstracts, which it is argued is a rich site for both text work and identity work and a practice which goes beyond technique to questions of identity and the promotional economies of academic work.

Online teaching - the experience of a 'new' academic

A 'new' academic will share her fIrst experience of online teaching in a university environment. As an experienced user of computer technology this academic who is new to teaching in a university environment shared the experience of being 'new' to online teaching and learning with Masters level students. This paper explores the issues associated with online learning from the perspective of the 'teacher' as weIl as that of the 'learners'. The learners in this study participated in project-based learning experiences in an online unit taught by staff in the Faculty of Education. It will consider the issues that arose during the semester including the use of a new technology (new to the university) as well as the experience of participation in project-based learning in an online learning environment. The manner in which students dealt with the issues associated with this learning experience in an online environment will be presented.

Educating for professional capability in the field of information technology: integrating industry-based learning with the academic curriculum

In response to the forces of globalisation, societies and organisations have had to adapt and even proactively transform themselves. Universities, as knowledge-based organisations, have recognised that there are now many other important sites of knowledge construction and use. The apparent monopoly over valued forms of knowledge making and knowledge certification is disappearing. Universities have had to recognise the value of practical working knowledge developed in workplace settings beyond university domains, and promote the value of academic forms of knowledge making to the practical concerns of everyday learning. It is within this broader systems view that professional curriculum development undertaken by universities needs to be examined.

University educational planning responds to these external forces in ways that are drawing together formal academic capability/competence and practice-based capability/competence. Both forms of academic and practice-based knowledge and knowing are being equally valued and related one to the other. University planning in turn gives impetus to the development of new forms of professional education curricula. This paper presents a contemporary case of a designed professional curriculum in the field of information technology that situates workplace learning as a central element in the education of Information Technology (IT)/Information Systems (IS) professionals.

The key dimensions of the learning environment of Deakin University’s BIT (Hons) program are considered with a view to identifying areas of strong integration between the worlds of academic and workplace learning from the perspectives of major stakeholders. The dynamic interplay between forms of theorising and practising is seen as critical in educating students for professional capability in their chosen field. From this analysis, an applied research agenda, relating to desired forms of professional learning in higher education, is outlined, with specific reference to the information and communication technology professions.

The 6 by the power of 3 model for enhancing academic teachers' capacities for effective online teaching and learning: benefits, initiatives and future directions

To gain the full educational benefits of the major new investments in corporate technologies supporting online teaching and learning it is argued that a strategic, systems based approach of academic professional development (APD) is required. Such an approach requires a clear view of the key areas of potential and enduring teaching and learning benefit which can be realised from online developments, including an understanding of the changing role of the academic teacher in higher education, the identification of the desired professional capacities to educate online and the implementation of a number of coordinated initiatives to develop these professional capacities in order to engage constructively with the learning and technology opportunities. Based on previous work, we propose a '6' by the power of '3' model of Academic Professional Capacities Development for effective APD of online teaching and learning. The model can help inform the actions of policy makers, executives and practitioners in ways that promote an authentic learning organisation.

Challenging librarians : the relevance of the doctorate in professional practice

We, as librarians, are adept at challenging academics, students and administrators about the crucial role of information literacy in higher education and lifelong learning. Consequently, the push for strategic partnerships with academics is frequently in the foreground of our thinking. Concomitantly, the push for academic status for librarians is raised occasionally, particularly as a pay and equity issue. Yet, our purposes may appear somewhat misguided or rhetorical when contrasted to the nominal prerequisites required for professional practice, especially when compared with those of academics. The issues of information literacy and knowledge production within a knowledge economy compound such debate. This paper argues that ‘credential creep’ is catching up with librarians in the university sector. In order to be regarded as integral to academic endeavour, those of us who ‘teach’ information literacy may need to match the qualifications normally required by academics. Consonant with this proposal is the Australian and New Zealand Information Literacy Framework: Principles, Standards and Practice (Bundy, 2004) of the Australian and New Zealand Institute for Information Literacy (ANZIIL) and the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL). The Framework mirrors many of the desired outcomes of a doctoral degree, a degree possessed by approximately one per cent of Australian librarians but, in comparison, by more than fi fty-four per cent of Australian academics. This paper challenges—not academics—but librarians, to embrace the notion of undertaking doctoral study to enhance our professional (or amateur) practice and our information literacy. The recommendation is derived in essence from my study on doctoral research and information literacy (Macauley, 2001). It also incorporates the current discourse on these issues and uses personal narrative to articulate the findings. It seeks also to explore those tensions and contradictions commensurate with practising what we preach.

Comparative academic performance of lifelong learners in engineering and technology

The engineering-technologist degree is an important element of continuing engineering education for many members of the engineering workforce. This paper reports on the study of close to 9000 unit enrolments to gain an objective understanding of the withdrawal, persistence, and academic-performance characteristics of both engineering-technologist and professional-engineering students.

Progressive discourse in mathematics classes - the task of the teacher

This paper uses data from two mathematics lessons to explore the nature of progressive discourse and examine critical features of teacher actions that contribute to mathematics classrooms functioning as communities of inquiry. Features found to promote progressive discourse include a focus on the conceptual elements of the curriculum and the use of complex, challenging tasks that problematised the curriculum; the orchestration of student reporting to allow all students to contribute to progress towards the community's solution to the problem; and a focus on seeking, recognizing, and drawing attention to mathematical reasoning and justification, and using this as a basis for learning.

The need to keep vigilant against academic fundamentalism

In today's academic society, the likelihood of researchers succumbing to fundamentalism is a grave threat. In this paper, my main argument is that academics are often tempted to put their personal needs (i.e. recognition and opportunities for more money) ahead of their value for research. Consequently, it becomes easier for them to stray into a space where they are no longer being driven by scientific rigor and debate. Despite the internal and external pressures that we face, there is a need for vigilance to avoid this from occurring to ensure that the true notion of researching a science and our academic responsibility are fulfilled.

The academic acclimatisation difficulties of international students of the built environment

Teaching models common to Australasia can be antithetical to those of its Asian neighbours. Australasian andragogy is a bottom-up student-centred mode of knowledge transmission promoting extroverted learning styles, whilst in Asia andragogy is commonly a top-down teacher centred model promoting introspective learning. Yet these teaching styles are in opposition to the cultural-systems attributed to Asia and the West. Such socio-cultural differences are recognised in this research as contributing to the difficulties international Built Environment undergraduates experience when asked to learn in multi-disciplinary collaborative teams. This paper presents the initial stages of a study currently running as a reflexive research program aimed at resolving these learning difficulties. The primary aim of this program is to inform a new culturally inclusive andragogy for design teaching. The outcome of the research questions are addressed through a triangulated analysis including: the formative appraisal of student satisfaction through questionnaires; the summative evaluation of student achievement through the analysis of grades and the assessment of knowledge and skills gained through the measure of student design projects; and illuminative evaluation through focus group discussions and the observation of tutorials.

Governing employees in the "Bank": a discourse analysis of strategic change

This paper reports the findings from a study of ‘Transform’, a Bank’s strategic change program. The study was carried out by developing and applying a discursive model of strategic change to Transform. Findings are presented about how Transform was constructed from ‘grand discourses’ of business and science that were drawn on by senior management, and how a ‘local discourse’ of the self was formed at the intersection of these grand discourses. This paper is concerned with how senior management has attempted to govern employee identity and practices through the construction of Transform. In this respect Transform can be understood as a discourse which was designed to regulate identity and influence employee practices by constructing and disseminating a particular reality for the Bank and its employees.