This paper describes the collaborative design, implementation and evaluation of a discipline-based eLearning module (eLM). The eLM was piloted as a mandatory but ungraded assessment task in five subjects across all years of study in the Management and Marketing specialisations, four in the Bachelor of Commerce, and one in the Master of Commerce, at the University of Wollongong. The eLM was developed in the subject’s eLearning space within the learning management system, Blackboard Vista and included a streamed lecture which provides a range of instruction and examples of how to use evidence, a link to the University’s Harvard Referencing Guidelines and an online quiz. The evaluations indicated that the design of the module and its embedded nature, in terms of both content and location, provided students with explicit instruction on using evidence and referencing that in general most students are required to acquire through a process of osmosis. Explicit instruction and assessment allowed students to be more strategic about their selection and use of evidence and apply these newly acquired skills to other subjects of study.

The expansion of higher education across the broader Australian population has led to a more diverse student population than ever before. While research in the Australian context has focussed on support for some traditionally underrepresented students in a face-to-face learning context, how to enhance participation and success of these groups in online education has remained relatively unexplored. This paper presents the rationale and approach of a study investigating the challenges of students from traditionally underrepresented groups in online higher education (i.e. low SES, first in family, indigenous, disability, mature age, primary caregivers, remote and regional students, international, English as a second language), and approaches that can enhance the learning experience for these students. As a work in progress the research will draw on student and staff perspectives to develop and disseminate principles and practices for effective, socially inclusive online teaching.

A major challenge facing academic developers is meeting the development needs of both time poor academics and those staff in multi-location campuses, especially sessional tutors, who may start teaching several weeks before electronic access is enabled. Necessary restrictions placed on access to local intranet and Learning Management Systems meant rethinking how to meet the needs of all staff and in the process model good practice through the use of blended learning environments. One regional university, with seven national and one international campus, is currently redesigning their staff development program to incorporate the use of blogs and wikis to provide access for all staff to a collaborative space to support improved teaching. This paper provides a rationale for the new direction and outlines the design phase to incorporate the use of collaborative technologies within the staff development program. It outlines the challenges faced in designing the environment and provides an overview of the design for the pilot phase.

This paper reports on one important aspect of the preliminary findings from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) project, Academic integrity standards: Aligning policy and practice in Australian universities. Our project aims to identify approaches to the complex issues of academic integrity, and then to build on these approaches to develop exemplars for adaptation across the higher education sector. Based on analysis of publicly available online academic integrity policies at each of the 39 Australian universities, we have identified five core elements of exemplary academic integrity policy. These have been grouped under the headings, Access, Approach, Responsibility, Detail and Support, with no element given priority over another. In this paper we compare the five core elements identified in our research with best practice guidelines recommended by the Higher Education Academy (HEA) in the UK. We conclude that an exemplar policy needs to provide an upfront, consistent message, reiterated throughout the entire policy, which indicates a systemic and sustained commitment to the values of academic integrity and the practices that ensure it. Whereas the HEA created two discrete resources, the key aim and challenge of this project will be to develop exemplars that demonstrate a strong alignment between policy and practice.

In a study about designing “reusable e-learning activities”, the author used online role play as a containable, but pedagogically rich, sample. 53 online role plays in Australian higher education were identified and tracked between 1990 and 2006 (Wills, 2010). As a result of interviews and surveys, it was calculated that 45 role plays were a reuse of another role play, demonstrating that the topic of reusability is an important one in higher education. However, there were only eight instances of reuse of the same role play itself (18%). Predictably these eight instances were a reuse within the same discipline. Meanwhile, 82% of the instances were a reuse of another’s role play design. This high percentage confirms the importance of research about learning designs to guide and underpin programs for sharing good teaching practice. The eight instances of reuse of the same role play involved four role plays. These four were analyzed in more detail via case study methodology, documenting their full history of reuse. The histories raised questions about what constituted instances of reuse. These nuances of the term “reusability” are explored further in this paper. The nuances warrant attention when designing e-learning activities to be Reusable Learning Objects and they particularly apply to those RLOs that involve active, authentic and collaborative learning such as online role plays. Wills, Leigh & Ip (2010) provides a fuller guide to designing role-based e-learning.

This paper reports on progress in the first year of a two year project called Project EnROLE (Encouraging Role Based Online Learning Environments) which is funded by the Carrick Institute for Learning & Teaching in Higher Education in Australia. The project aims to link a small but growing number of university teachers who are using online role play, building them into a community via three strategies: developing a repository of sharable/reusable role play learning designs with an associated peer review process; facilitating evaluation and publication of papers about their role plays (for example the role play stream at this conference); and establishing sustainable national and international role play partnerships. The project also aims to double the number of online role play designers in two years by scaffolding beginners in a four stage process before designing their own role play: awareness raising; participating in another designer’s role play; evaluating another designer’s role play; and moderating another designer’s role play. The strategy for growing the community takes a multi-pronged approach, firstly emphasising personal interaction by fostering university-based clusters of online role play designers, then building into state networks for both face to face and online professional development events. Together, the state networks in the second year of the project will form a national community of practice with international presence via the project’s website and repository.

Universities are striving to provide quality learning experiences for their diverse student population and online learning is one aspect of this changing environment. This paper notes barriers that have been recognised that impede faculty uptake of online learning and examines some of the strategies that can be implemented to overcome these barriers. A plan for integrated implementation of online learning is proposed which consists of Planning & Promotion, Education, Support, Training, Encouragement and Recognition & Reward (PESTER). The elements of the plan are described in detail and an example of an implementation plan is provided.

In the late 90s the University of Wollongong (Australia) recognised the need for the establishment of flexible course delivery. The increasing globalisation of the world of tertiary education has added to the pressure for all institutions to address issues associated with the delivery of a quality education. Many systems have been developed internationally, but to be truly useful in changing the process and ensuring the students (the clients) are happy, quality assurance has to have a local component. To address the issue of QA and online teaching and learning the authors are looking at a two phase process, the first of which is the development of an initial audit tool examining online technical aspects followed by the collaborative development of a peer review process centred on pedagogical issues. To help inform the process and provide a 'user's view of quality', surveys were conducted of student and staff users of WebCT.