Dale Holt

Examining student satisfaction with wholly online learning

Learner satisfaction has been shown to be positively correlated with quality of learning outcomes. An understanding of the factors that influence student satisfaction with online learning in a particular context can be used as an input to the appropriate design of learning environments, and for the provision of targeted support to students, with an aim to positively influence the student online learning experience. Following the mandatory inclusion of at least one wholly online unit of study in all undergraduate programs at Deakin University, a large ‘experiences of learning online’ (ELO) survey was undertaken to gauge students’ perceptions of studying in the wholly online mode. A multivariate linear regression of all the questionnaire items was performed against an overall satisfaction item. Five items were found to significantly contribute to a model that explained approximately 70% of reported student satisfaction. Factors that were found to positively influence student satisfaction with studying a wholly online unit primarily related to how confident they felt about their ability to communicate and learn online, having a clear understanding of what was required to succeed in the unit and how well they thought they were performing in the unit. Other results are also reported.

Impacts of an Online-Supported, Resource-Based Learning Environment: Does One Size Fit All?

This paper reports on the use of an online, resource-based learning (RBL) approach in first year psychology at Deakin University. Differences between on- and off-campus students that emerged are examined in the context of the learning goals and study approaches of the two student groups and their attitudes to using computers. Unlike the on-campus students who were less positive about working with computers and reported confusion about how and what to study for the unit, the off-campus students reported feeling confident they had a good study strategy and were more positive about computers. The off-campus students also reported that they spent more time working with electronic resources and attached greater value to them. While all students valued the prescribed resources, the off-campus students found some of the optional, electronic resources valuable because they added to the learning experience. These students also reported greater use of the computer-mediated communication available as part of the online learning environment, and valued this functionality more highly than did the on-campus students. These findings highlight the need to take into account learner characteristics when designing learning environments that cater for individual differences and preferences. While online-supported RBL approaches have the potential to cater to the diverse needs of students, learning environments need to be designed, structured and delivered so the learning experience can be customized to the needs of different student cohorts, while preserving the overarching, pedagogical goals.

Managing Information Technology in Open and Distance Higher Education

This paper uses the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Management in the 1990s Research Framework as a basis for examining the challenges of managing information technology in higher education, with particular reference to open and distance education. Each of the five factors in the strategic framework (strategy, technology, structure, management processes, staff skills and roles) is individually examined with relationships between aspects of each factor highlighted. The importance of aligning factors with the pivotal factor in the framework, strategy, is then explored. The framework serves as an aid to help both construct an overall picture of the key factors which need to be managed holistically in order to ensure that information technology (IT) contributes to the betterment of an organisation and to deconstruct those factors (and their relationships) so that constituent components are also well managed. The authors draw some conclusions on the need for universities to be truly learning organi...

Changing perspectives: teaching and learning centres’ strategic contributions to academic development in Australian higher education

This article reports on a study of Australian teaching and learning centres to identify factors that contribute to their effective strategic leadership. These centres remain in a state of flux, with seemingly endless reconfiguration. The drivers for such change appear to lie in decision makers’ search for their centres to add more strategic value to organisational teaching, learning and the student experience. Through a synthesis of findings based on interviews, a survey of directors of centres and focus groups, the article identifies paradigmatic shifts in the ways centres see themselves, relate to their organisations and respond to external environmental forces. From an understanding of paradigm shifts, strategic contributions to academic development in the sector are framed organisationally through key points of leverage. Points of leverage are manageable actions that can be taken to maximise overall institutional impact and effectiveness.

Responding to the technological imperative: the experience of an open and distance education institution

This paper examines the key impact that technology is having on shaping and, indeed, fusing the worlds of work both outside and inside tertiary institutions. The transformation of organisations by technology creates key challenges for tertiary institutions which are identified. One tertiary institutions attempts to engage with these challenges is illuminated through case study research. The institution in question, Deakin University, is a major open and distance education organisation in Australia. In grappling with the technological imperative, issues of leadership, management and organisational change come to the fore. Leadership in dynamically evolving organisations committed to the use of educational technologies in a range of diverse teaching‐learning contexts is an enormously complex and difficult task. The complexities, ambiguities and difficulties of leadership in such an environment are illuminated in this paper through the presentation of a set of eight interconnected issues which reveal some o...

Tertiary pedagogy encounters the technological imperative

In one of the most challenging periods to confront tertiary education, we examine the impact that technology is having on the experience of one open and distance education university: Deakin University in Victoria, Australia. This paper considers how the espoused pedagogical views that were expressed by the academics interviewed, individually and collectively impacted on their attitudes to information technologies and to their reactions to exposure to and experience with various technologies. The first part of the paper explicitly considers the interview as a research method and situates the interviews we undertook within current scholarship. The focus of the interviews was to seek perceptions of what constituted good teaching as well as the relevance of technology for teaching: as each academic defined it; the discipline concerned and the mode of delivery (i.e. on and/or off‐campus). The research did not provide definitive answers but suggested themes and implications which are considered in the Conclusi...

Teaching and learning centres: towards maturation

Approximately 70% of Australian Teaching and Learning Centres have been restructured and/or have undergone leadership changes in the last three years. The volatility of this environment reflects the number of significant challenges faced by Teaching and Learning Centres. In determining what makes Centres successful, the issues that are likely to impact on their ability to succeed were examined. It emerged that a myriad of factors influence whether or not a Centre was recognised as being an integral and valued part of the universitys teaching and learning community – a hallmark of having reached maturity. This paper identifies four factors as being critical to the ability of Centres to succeed, noting that a combination of other factors, appropriate to each unique context, must also be in place in order for Centres to maximise their value.

Professional education using e-simulations : benefits of blended learning design

The use of digital, Web-based simulations for education and training in the workplace is a significant, emerging innovation requiring immediate attention. A convergence of new educational needs, theories of learning, and role-based simulation technologies points to educators’ readiness for e-simulations. As modern e-simulations aim at integration into blended learning environments, they promote rich experiential, constructivist learning. Professional Education Using E-Simulations: Benefits of Blended Learning Design contains a broad range of theoretical perspectives on, and practical illustrations of, the field of e-simulations for educating the professions in blended learning environments. Readers will see authors articulate various views on the nature of professions and professionalism, the nature and roles that various types of e-simulations play in contributing to developing an array of professional capabilities, and various viewpoints on how e-simulations as an integral component of blended learning environments can be conceived, enacted, evaluated, and researched.

The MBA Experience: Participants' Entry Level Conceptions of Management.

INTRODUCTION Most tertiary educational institutions describe the nature of MBA participants in terms of common demographic and educational statistics such as age, sex, GMAT scores, undergraduate degree, type of employer, marital status and so on. In terms of the typical objectives of an MBA programme (to enhance and develop the general management capabilities of students) such variables are useful in constructing a basic categorisation of students but reveal little about their intrinsic qualities. In essence, demographic and educational statistics are used as surrogate measures for the characteristics and aptitudes which students bring to their MBA studies and which will directly influence their subsequent managerial performance.

Australian teaching and learning centres through the eyes of their Directors: characteristics, capacities and constraints

This paper is based on research to identify common factors that contribute to the effective strategic leadership of teaching and learning centres. The second of three phases of data collection involved a survey of Directors of Australian teaching and learning centres. The data collected were quantitatively analysed using a range of descriptive, parametric and non-parametric techniques. Based on a response rate of 81.6 per cent, we present a contemporary, comprehensive and representative quantitative snapshot of Australian teaching and learning centres, as seen through the eyes of their Directors. The time since last restructure, incumbency of the current Director and total Directorship experience of the current Centre Director all have mean values of ‘sometime in the previous 1 to 3 years’. Most Centres would consider their work in the areas of ‘recognition and reward’ and ‘professional development of staff’ as high-impact functions, and they would be pleased with their efforts in the former area, and wish to perform better in the latter. The principal constraint identified by Centres was ‘lack of staff time’, both in the faculties and in the Centre, to engage in teaching and learning improvement activities. Overall, Centres feel well included in relevant university committees and other activities.