Cathy Gunn

Sustainability factors for e-learning initiatives

This paper examines the challenges that ‘grass roots’ e-learning initiatives face in trying to become sustainable. A cross-institutional study focused on local, rather than centrally driven, initiatives. A number of successful e-learning innovations were identified that had been driven by capable teachers seeking solutions to real educational problems. However, most of these remain in a high-risk category for institutions and offer poor rewards to their creators. While they may attract grant funding, these initiatives are typically not well supported in other important ways. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 staff in various academic and support roles from the tertiary sector in New Zealand, who were nationally recognised as e-learning leaders. Analysis of their responses revealed both institutional and cultural barriers to long-term sustainability. The following influences on sustainability were identified and discussed: supportive organisational structures, a vision shared by all and staff accountability. The paper proposes that not all initiatives are sustainable and offer practical strategies for achieving diffusion and continuity through collective action. The paper concludes that there is a need for cross-functional collaboration to accommodate different and sometimes conflicting perspectives. This is just one aspect of the culture change that research shows is needed for e-learning to transform, rather than sit uncomfortably alongside, institutional practice.

They Love It, but Do They Learn from It? Evaluating the Educational Impact of Innovations.

ABSTRACT The SECAL (Situated Evaluation of Computer‐Assisted Learning) framework offers a broadly based method for evaluating learning with technology in its many forms and implementations. Central to the framework are detailed and discipline‐specific definitions of learning and corresponding descriptions of innovative study environments designed to exploit the potential of technology to support achievement of high quality learning goals. The objectives are to collect evidence of how these environments may or may not lead to effective learning and to identify what, if anything, might be done to improve the prospects. The concept of situation implies the need to evaluate contextual influences as well as how students and lecturers actually use technology. This is achieved through rich description generated from multidimensional, qualitative methods which are theoretically grounded in interpretive, critical and postmodern paradigms. The ubiquitous student evaluation of teaching systems are over‐reliant on su...

Synthesizing management control frameworks

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the holistic nature of control systems to understand how they operate across organizational levels and manage change.Design/methodology/approach – This paper takes an analytical approach using the viable system model (VSM) to assess the two main frameworks of control reported in the accounting literature.Findings – The VSM provides an elegant framework for management control systems with explicit consideration of: multiple levels of control, communication channels, interactions with the environment, and the mechanisms for attaining balance between stability and change.Practical implications – The evaluation of current management control systems produces specific suggestions for improving the levers of control frameworkOriginality/value – The VSM has not previously been aligned with management control frameworks.

The changing role of tutors: forming a community of practice in a distributed learning environment

An evaluation of a distributed learning environment (DLE) of a regional NSW university provided the context to examine the changing role of tutors in new learning environments. It examines how the tutors started to form a community of practice in the first year of operation. The distance from the main campus made communication difficult for the tutors, lecturers and students and the use of information and communication technologies (ICT), at times, added to the challenge. This paper identifies ways that the tutor role changes in a DLE and how the development of a community of practice can support this change.

Engaging Learners through Continuous Online Assessment

Assessment has long been recognized as a significant driver of student learning. A simplistic description of its function is to provide learners with a focus for study activity and feedback on progress at given points in time. Deeper analysis of the role of assessment reveals aspects of learning, motivation, learner control and metacognitive skill development. The advent of sophisticated computer based assessment systems in recent years creates valuable opportunities to promote student learning in ways that were becoming unmanageable due to weight of numbers and breadth of diversity in university classes. Although the greatest practical benefits may be found within tertiary education, online assessment has potential to enhance individual learning and learner autonomy across all levels from primary school to post graduate courses. Evidence of this can be found in a growing volume of published research and case studies. Contextual analysis across studies now supports the development of ‘best use’ scenarios and frameworks.

Innovators and Institutions Working as Partners on Sustainable Change

Curriculum renewal is a standing item on the strategic agenda for the higher education sector and its institutions. In the twenty-first century, this often involves innovative uses of elearning tools and contemporary pedagogy to support the flexible access to interactive, rich media learning resources that students have come to expect. Considerable funding and creative effort have been devoted to this agenda over many years. Yet a recent study of 22 high-profile elearning initiatives found innovators and institutions in direct conflict over the actions required to integrate new pedagogical practices into teaching and learning environments. These findings reflect the literature on educational innovations produced over many years. This chapter identifies common challenges faced by innovators and explores ways that universities could become more active contributors to sustainable curriculum change. Successful development of curriculum models for 21C learning depends on productive partnerships between innovators and other key players within their institutions. Attempts to fine-tune funding models to promote dissemination and sustainability have met with limited success. It is time to shift focus to the actions universities can take to accommodate and operationalize innovations and the additional steps that innovators can take to present compelling evidence that they should do so.

Evaluating action-learning and professional networking as a framework for educational leadership capacity development

This article describes the responsive evaluation component of an educational leadership capacity-building initiative developed at one Australian university and implemented by three others. The project aimed to develop, implement and disseminate an innovative framework to address the national strategic goal to increase the pool of qualified educational leaders. The framework reflected principles of distributive leadership, featured individual action-learning plans and fostered engagement in a supportive, scholarly community. Evaluation was challenging on many fronts, which the qualitative and responsive approach of design-based research was used to address. An external evaluator joined the project team and adjustments based on feedback were implemented throughout the process. The leadership capacity development framework is described, and design-based research endorsed as a suitable methodology to evaluate innovative academic development programs.

Online Assessment and Learner Motivation in the Twenty-First Century

Twenty-first century learners are technology literate and connected to their peers in ways that were inconceivable a generation ago. These attributes can be used to activate engagement and enhance learning if online assessment is designed to address the four elements of motivation identified by educational researchers, i.e., attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction. When the importance of these four elements was first identified, the tools and pedagogical strategies available to activate them were less versatile than they are today. At that time, class size and student diversity were increasing while resources available for teaching diminished. Knowledge about the affordances of technology for learning was growing rapidly.

From a SoAp Box.

10.1080/1360144X.2010.497708 International Journal for Academic Development 360-144X (print)/1470-1324 (online) Opinion Piece 2 1 Taylor & Francis 5 30 0 00September 201 C thyGunn ca.gun @auckland ac.nz Various discussions at the March 2010 Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Commons in Statesboro, GA, led me to reflect on the relationship between academic development, e-learning, and SoTL. Throughout the conference, I felt a nagging suspicion that each professional community may have created a silo, with a discourse so tightly defined that related areas of academic practice are judged as ‘other’ and not engaged with. The irony is blatant if disciplines that actively promote sharing of experience across faculties do not build short but strategically important bridges across different strands of practice. This opinion piece invites readers to engage in further discussion.