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The [Australian Learning and Teaching Council] ALTC Exchange (formerly the Carrick Exchange), is a national repository and networking service for Australian higher education. The Exchange was designed to provide access to a repository of shared learning and teaching resources, work spaces for team members engaged in collaborative projects, and communication and networking services. The ALTC established the Exchange for those who teach, manage and lead learning and teaching in higher education. As part of the research conducted to inform the development of the Exchange, models for peer review of educational resources were evaluated. For this, a design based research approach was adopted. Findings from the literature and feedback from key practitioners and leaders within the sector are discussed in this paper. Finally, key recommendations for implementation are identified.

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Academic staff play a fundamental role in the use of online learning by students. Yet, compared to studies reporting student perspectives on online learning, studies investigating the perspectives of academic staff are much more limited. Perhaps the least common investigations are those that compare the perceptions of academic staff and students using the same online learning environment (OLE). Much research indicates, at least initially, academic staff most value OLE systems as a mechanism for efficient delivery of learning materials to students. Following the mainstreaming of an OLE at Deakin University in 2004, the data from a large, repeated, representative and quantitative survey were analysed to investigate comparative staff and student evaluations of an OLE, and to explore the evidence for development in the use of an OLE by academic staff. Generally, students were found to give higher importance and satisfaction ratings to elements of the OLE than staff. Students were also more likely than staff to agree that the OLE enhanced their learning. A comparison of the mean ratings recorded for staff in 2004 and 2005 showed that both importance and satisfaction ratings of elements of the OLE were almost universally higher after a year of use of the OLE.

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This article reports the development, validation and use of a survey for assessing students’ perceptions of their e-learning environments. The Online Learning Environment Survey (OLES) was administered to 325 students, 131 in Australia and 194 in Hong Kong. The data were analysed to examine: (1) the reliability and validity of the survey; (2) differences between the perceptions of (a) students’ actual and preferred environment, (b) students and their teacher and (c) male and female students; and (3) whether associations exist between students’ perceptions of their e-learning environment and their enjoyment of e-learning. In addition to quantitative data, unstructured interviews were used to provide a more in depth understanding of the e-learning environments created. These data provide valuable feedback to educators working in e-learning environments to help teachers to evaluate the effectiveness of the environment and to make adjustments and improvements as required.

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This research started with the design and implementation of an online digital video database, followed by a study of how three student teachers used it in building a virtual learning community that enabled the sharing of teaching practices during their first teaching practicum in the teacher education program. The student teachers made use of teaching practice videos that were edited into ‘learning objects’ ready for peer evaluation. The peer evaluation was conducted by an online discussion forum among community members, which provided the data for analysis. The findings give insight into how comments and feedback flowed within the learning community, and how the videos in the form of learning objects helped to generate various categories of teaching practices. Finally, a follow up focus group discussion provided useful data regarding the possibilities and limitations of creating a learning community centred on sharing constructed learning objects in an online digital video database.

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This paper reports on research undertaken to determine the effectiveness of a [three dimensional] 3D simulation environment used to train mining personnel in emergency evacuation procedures, designated the Fires in Underground Mines Evacuation Simulator (FUMES). Owing to the operational constraints of the mining facility, methods for measuring learning transfer were employed which did not require real world performance evaluation. Transfer measures that examined simulator performance relative to real world experience, fidelity assessment, and appraisal of the training value of the platform were utilised. Triangulation of results across all three measures indicated the presence of learning transfer, suggesting the viability of indirect measures in instances where real world performance testing is not possible. Furthermore, these indirect measures of learning transfer also provided some insight as to the strengths and weaknesses of the simulation design, which could be used to inform the development of future versions of the product.

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Learning management systems (LMS) serve as the primary online technology for student learning in many universities. Although they are only one ‘solution’, they are often regarded as all encompassing. How university teachers reconcile their beliefs about such technologies with their pedagogical beliefs remains a relatively unexplored area. This study draws on three cases from various disciplines to uncover faculty beliefs about the roles, affordances and limitations of these technologies and how each teacher adapted these to their learning designs within an LMS environment. The overall aim is to reveal the relationship between teacher beliefs and learning designs for web technologies such as LMS. This research contributes to the conceptual understandings that underpin faculty teacher development for technology integration. It provides insightful accounts of the kinds of teacher beliefs that underlie effective learning designs for quite large classes. The resultant stories themselves hold great potential to promote reflection and discourse on the use of technologies in university teaching.

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This article reports on findings from a comparative study on firefighter students' learning processes in a technology-supported distance training course and a traditional campus training course in Sweden. Based on student interviews and observations of exercises, the article aims to describe and analyse the impact on learning processes when exercise-oriented teaching takes place in a technology-supported learning environment instead of face to face on campus. Drawing on the concept of contradiction in activity theory, the findings indicate that distance students encounter several dilemmas and conflicts related to low instructor presence, ambiguities regarding learning requirements and division of labor, as well as shortcomings in the technologies offered. However, the distance students tend to develop strategies for dealing with these contradictions, resulting in the development of self-directed learning and more learner-centered approaches, while the campus students rely to a greater extent on traditional, instructor-centered teaching. During the two-year training course, however, it appears the established norms and conventions of teaching and learning which characterise the campus mode, counteract changes in the distance mode. The technology-supported learning process with its focus on exercise preparation is thus gradually normalised in the direction of the campus mode, and its face-to-face, instructor-led and exercise-oriented learning process.

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Professional development for teachers in information and communication technology (ICT) is currently a major priority for school systems in Australia and internationally. The metacognitive and reflective approach to professional development described in this paper is a response to the limitations of directive approaches to ICT learning within a context of rapid technological change. It proposes a capability based approach which strives to develop lifelong computer learning strategies. An important characteristic of the metacognitive approach is that, rather than specific objectives or outcomes being ‘imposed’ on learners, participants are encouraged to identify, articulate and pursue personally relevant goals, including those related to skills, attitudes, confidence, values and understandings, integration and school leadership. This paper reports on a research project which investigated the applicability of such an approach to teacher professional development. The approach was found to have significant outcomes in terms of computer skill development, and in influencing teachers’ approaches to their own and their students’ learning.

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The term 'innovation' is associated mainly with change in practice using educational technology. This paper explores the question of why innovations in online teaching and learning in higher education break down or deliver less than they promise, why they are so resource intensive, so prone to breakdown, and why they often fail to live up to their promises. Two cases of innovation were selected from a broad doctoral research project across three Australian universities, involving 24 interviewees. One case was a bottom up, wiki based learning space inspired by a constructivist commitment, the other a top down response to organisational change in a degree program. Despite literature on case studies which offer useful, evidence based approaches and models for online pedagogy, there is a lack of analytical perspectives with which to engage with breakdowns and ‘thwarted innovation’ in online learning. The focus in this paper is online teaching, and breakdowns are scoped beyond the technologies involved and encompass social, material and discursive entities. An actor network perspective (Callon 1986; Latour 1987; Law 2000) is used to explore the relationality between social and technological entities, and the sociotechnical assemblage which constitutes online teaching. It argues that (i) crucial factors are hidden by the normative perspective inherent in the implementation of technology systems; and (ii) recognising the connections between the social, material and discursive entities in online learning offers a strong analytic basis for innovative teaching and learning practice.

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Assessment of practical clinical skills is essential in the health fields. Objective Structured Clinical Exams (OSCEs), where examiners assess students performing clinical procedures on simulated patients (actors), are central to the evaluation of practical skills. However, traditional OSCEs require considerable time-investment to administer, and providing timely, individualised student feedback is difficult. To address these issues, an electronic OSCE (eOSCE) was developed utilising the iPad and specialised software. The eOSCE was trialled in four courses within two entry-level rehabilitative pre-professional programs at two universities, physiotherapy and occupational therapy. Evaluation consisted of student surveys (n = 206), eight student focus groups (n = 25), examiner surveys (n = 25) and interviews with course coordinators (n = 3). This paper describes the administration of the eOSCE and reports on its evaluation from the academic's perspective. A majority of examiners (68 per cent) preferred the eOSCE over traditional paper-based OSCEs, primarily because of the consistency and promptness of student feedback. The advantages academics cited were equitable student feedback and post-examination administrative time-savings. Disadvantages of the eOSCE were the pre-examination preparation required and challenges for examiners not comfortable using technology. Overall, the key benefits of the eOSCE were the automated, immediate individualised student feedback and a time saving in OSCE administration.

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