Ian C. Reid

Enhancing on-line teaching: Designing responsive learning environments

Higher education is undergoing major changes in the development and delivery of courses. These changes arise from a range of social, economic and technical factors operating across the higher education sector. The use of technology in both teaching and learning is both a response to, and a reason for, these changed practices. Technology provides new ways of catering for the traditional learning needs of students and also enables new forms of support appropriate to technology-based delivery. One of the outcomes of the increased use of technology is the development of on-line approaches to teaching and learning. This requires a reconceptualization of the role of support mechanisms for students, which has implications for the professional development of academic staff. This article considers the ways in which the wider trends in education impact upon on-line learning environments and the implications of this for professionals involved in the development and delivery of the courses. Particular consideration will be given to the range of approaches of support in online delivery, which include stand-alone resources and generic support, parallel or adjunct learning opportunities, and integrated strategies. It examines these in relation to the characteristics of pedagogically defensible teaching activity and proposes ways of conceptualising the work practices of professional staff involved in student support, professional development, discipline-based teaching and resource development.

Fractional design of experiments applied to a wear simulation

Abstract A multidisciplinary approach to wear simulation to investigate rolling-sliding abrasion is described. Wear is a stochastic process where fatigue combines with abrasion, adhesion and corrosion. Statistical methods were found to be highly suitable for conceiving and analysing laboratory simulation of the wear process. A special procedure of so-called two-level complex design of experiments is described. By the way of an example, a fractional experimental design is presented showing a procedure for simulataneous evaluation of the influence of force, temperature, material and sliding on abrasion of rolling mill tool materials. A set of laboratory treatments was conducted via two-disc testing and single-scratch testing. The results, including analyses of the wear track via profilometry and metallography are described. Wear phenomena are discussed from statistical, mechanistic and microstructural viewpoints. The heterogeneous polycrystalline materials exhibit inherently stochastic attributes. The additional factors causing the dispersion in the measured wear rate were the technical characteristics of the laboratory devices. However, by virtue of the statistical design of the experiments and subsequent analyses, these variations were monitored, and the main effects and interactions, characterising the abrasive wear, were satisfactorily diagnosed.

The contradictory managerialism of university quality assurance

This paper investigates how Australian universities are being disciplined to behave as commercial enterprises by the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA). The manual produced by AUQA, for the purpose of conducting audits of Australian universities, is analysed. I use an analytical framework that provides a means by which a text from the ‘manual’ genre can be analysed with respect to social and political contexts, using Critical Discourse Analysis. I analyse changes in the language used in subsequent editions of the manual, drawing inferences about how the AUQA manual constructs universities to behave as particular kinds of business entities. Depictions of the globalised and virtualised university are silenced in the texts. Contrary to the rhetoric of the university being a flexible, globalised enterprise, I find that universities are constructed as localised businesses appearing to be independent of direct government control but nevertheless constrained in the scope of their operation.

Reflections on using the Internet for the evaluation of course delivery

Abstract The increased pressures on universities to have demonstrable accountability measures in the form of quality assurance systems, coupled with the increasing use of Internet technologies in education, produce a twofold challenge. Firstly, it is necessary to develop policy frameworks, quality processes, and online tools to provide comprehensive, timely, and appropriate information that can be acted upon in order to improve the quality of learning. Secondly, such frameworks, processes, and tools should be applied in flexible ways that reflect the nature of the learning environments that they are aiming to improve. This paper discusses one component of the evaluation of teaching—the evaluation of teaching by students via online methods. This approach to the evaluation of teaching by students has a number of advantages. It can be accessed in flexible ways and can incorporate feedback from students learning in a range of contexts and locations, feedback can be summarised and responded to efficiently, and quantitative and qualitative information can be readily analysed. In addition, for the increasing number of students who are engaging in online learning experiences, it provides an evaluation mechanism that is congruent with their learning environment. A number of criteria for successful online evaluation tools are proposed. Some criteria relate to the facility for instructors to customise the evaluation instrument for particular learning contexts and to address particular quality improvement concerns. Other practical criteria include accessibility for staff and students, ease and speed of reporting, and the capacity to address issues of confidentiality, access to, and use of data. A case study arising from the use of a set of online evaluation tools that address these criteria is presented. The benefits and risks to students, instructors, and the institution as a whole are also considered. Finally, future improvements in the tools are outlined.

Knowledge: How should universities manage IT?

Online Services at the Flexible Learning Centre at the University of South Australia. He manages the online delivery platform of the University, UniSAnet. His research interests include the delivery of education in online learning environments and institutional strategy. More information can be found from his Home Page at http://www.unisanet. unisa.edu.au/staff/Homepage.asp?Name=Ian.Reid. Address for correspondence: Flexible Learning Centre, University of South Australia, Underdale Campus, Underdale, South Australia 5032. Tel: +61 8 8302 7074; Fax: +61 8 8302 6767; E-mail: ian.reid@unisa.edu.au specialisms for generalists

Auditors of the managerial university: neo‐liberal business advisers or paternal controllers?

Universities are increasingly being seen as commercial enterprises, and are represented as particular types of business entities in manuals provided to university managers. Critical discourse analysis is employed in this paper to construct an analytical framework for the study of managerial advice, which is then used to examine the manual provided to Australian universities for the conduct of institutional audit by the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA). Institutions are represented as businesses, but contrary to the rhetoric of universities being colonised by ‘new managerialism’, the manual constructs institutions more as localised and constrained businesses than globally networked entities.

Quality goes online

In an era of competition in a global education market where distance education methods are growing in use via the Internet and quality assurance is taking on greater importance, the means and rationales for ensuring quality in online education in universities is under-theorised. This paper describes current debates within quality assurance and online delivery in Higher Education in Australia and discusses five perspectives of quality and their implications for online distance education. Considering these perspectives as particular discursive formations it is possible to construct new understandings of both quality education and the role of online delivery in the future of teaching and learning. These understandings are then tested by critiquing two recent contributions to the field of quality assurance of online education.