Multimedia University
Mr David Asirvatham is currently the Director for Centre for Multimedia Education Development (CMED) at Multimedia University. He has held numerous post such the Associate Dean for Faculty of Information Technology (Multimedia University), Project Manager for the Multimedia and IT Infrastructure for Multimedia University Campus, Secretary for the Artificial Intelligence Society Malaysia and Country Representative for the Asia E-learning Network (AEN) based in Japan. Mr. David completed his B.Sc. (Hons) Ed. and Post-grad Diploma in Computer Science from Universiti Malaya and his M.Sc (Digital System) from Brunel University, U.K. and is currently pursuing his PhD. He has been lecturing in IT and Multimedia for the past 15 year at UiTM and MMU.
Mr David has published numerous papers in e-learning. He has been responsible for the development and implementation of Multimedia Learning System (MMLS), Smart Card System, Interactive Voice Response System, E-Procurement System and Document Management System at MMU. His research interest includes Neural Network, Web Technology, and E-learning.
Universitas 21 Global Pte Ltd
Donald Babcock is Academic Provost of Universitas 21 Global. He is responsible for the development of the academic program and related academic services.
Before joining Universitas 21 Global, Dr Babcock served as founding Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Harcourt Higher Education (HHE), an online undergraduate college in Boston, Massachusetts. Under his academic leadership, HHE developed and implemented an online curriculum of 110 courses for undergraduate degrees in business, information technology and health, including the arts and sciences courses required for general education. Harcourt Higher Education was the first completely online college to be licensed by the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education.
From 1968 to 1999, Dr Babcock served at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, where he was a tenured associate professor in the Department of English and severally held the posts of Vice Chancellor for Planning, Acting Provost and Director of the Graduate Program in Instructional Design. Dr Babcock was the founding director of Multi-Site Education (MUSETM) Distance Learning Program. He is a regular speaker at conferences and seminars on learning pedagogy and technique.
Dr Babcock holds a PhD in English and American Literature from Stanford University, and earned his Bachelor's degree at the US Naval Academy.
An important challenge for e-learning at the level of graduate business education is to adapt traditional case study teaching techniques to the meet the needs of the virtual learning environment. Case-study teaching methodologies characteristically require students to collaborate in on-site groups as they complete their analyses of cases and propose recommended management strategies to address the issues raised by the case materials. There are several variations; in some instances, for example, participants share preliminary thoughts and challenge one another's approaches, learning from the expertise and personal insights of one another, and then work alone to develop their own solutions. In other instances, the participants may complete the full analysis and proposed solutions as members of a team, learning the several roles required for successful team work and completing assignments based on their team roles.
In a completely online MBA, successful collaborative problem solving techniques must be incorporated so that students benefit in ways analogous to those in traditional case study approaches, though the process itself will be markedly different. Success in meeting the challenge can bring an additional benefit by creating a learning environment that is analogous to real-world problem solving in international business, developing students' abilities to work global virtual teams. In this environment students approach cases by working with other participants literally around the world, and learn not only the theories, concepts and applied skills that follow from addressing the case materials, but also learn from the varieties in approach to such problems that students may bring because of differences in cultural backgrounds as well as business experience.
Executive Chairman, HarvestRoad Limited
Grame Barty is the Chairman and CEO of HarvestRoad Limited a publicly listed company he founded in August 1996.
Prior to HarvestRoad Mr Barty spent 8 years as a senior executive in IT organizations including Fujitsu Australia, Nortel Australia and Telecom New Zealand in a sales, business development and marketing capacity specialising in Advanced Intelligent Networks.
Mr Barty is a graduate of the Royal Military College of Australia with 10 years service as a commissioned officer in the Australian Regular Army specialising in Communications Intelligence and Electronic Warfare which included services with NATO forces in Germany.
From November 2000 - November 2002 he was a Board Director and on the Executive Committee of the Australian Information Industry Association and was the Director responsible for the Business Taxation Task Force.
In May 2001 he was appointed by Prime Minister and Cabinet to the Board of Australian Export Commission - Austrade - to represent the Australian ICT industry and Western Australian exporters.
In July 2001 he was selected as a Finalist in the Ernst & Young Australian Entrepreneur of the Year Awards in recognition of his role with HarvestRoad.
A keen cyclist he is also President of the Western Australian Cycling Federation.
Creation, collaboration and dissemination of learning content has been the mantra of the Virtual Learning Environment since 1995.
The digital proliferation and delivery of content is growing at an exponential rate placing extreme pressures on existing learning platform processes and mechanisms. In particular identifying, capturing, copyrighting and reusing learning objects has now become of critical importance to expanding learning communities of interest and on institutions as commercial pressures increase.
A new, SCORM standard based four stage process has evolved. This process includes: an instructional design and content creation stage, a management of reusable learning objects through independent, federated digital repositories stage, a content assembling via manifest editors' stage and finally a content delivery through SCORM compliant Learning Management Systems stage.
The results from this new service delivery model include: rapid course creation and replication via Manifest Lists, true global collaboration and sharing of single instances of a learning object through a digital repository, cost reductions through infrastructure sharing, network enhancement features and reduction in content duplication practices and the beginning of true and effective copyright management of an institutions intellectual capital.
Ph.D., M.Ed., B.A. (Hons), FAIM, AFAHRI, AHRD (Member of numerous local and international ICT, ehealth and elearning associations and collaborative industry groups)
Certificate IV Workplace Trainer and Assessor (1998), Diploma Training and Assessment Systems (1999) (Born 1962) marc@marcbowles.com ( www.marcbowles.com )
Dr Marcus Bowles is a commercial consultant focussing on building systems that enable individuals and organisations to build shared futures. Marcus is an author, public commentator, visiting lecturer and consultant working with clients that include government organisations forming national policies, industry representative bodies, enterprises (mostly Forbes 500 Australian and South East Asian listed), and remote communities.
Marcus is director of the Institute for Working Futures, a private company that specialises in translating the latest thinking into applied outcomes. His research work also involves long term projects including completing national analysis and reviews in Australia of ICT training, broadband and e-business frameworks, and more recently being engaged by the Unitas Knowledge Centre — a joint Commonwealth Bank of Australia, University of Tasmania and Tasmanian State Government body — to lead research into the global trends as to how ICT will affect knowledge and learning. Dr Bowles has held offices such as honorary research fellow positions at Australian universities and membership of senior public and private boards as both a chairman and member.
From September 2002 up to February 2004 The Unitas Knowledge Centre ( www.unitas.com.au ) in Australia completed a major international project titled Learn to Elearn. This involved global research aimed at reinvestigating the foundations of elearning and the theory, tools and approaches that can underpin the effective and efficient implementation of elearning in a corporate and community setting. A number of major findings were uncovered and have been pursued in field research (10 commissioned international case studies and 10 identified corporate studies). On completion of research the project generated electronic tools, a manual and a publication that is intended to stimulate public discussion (Bowles, M. 2004. Relearning to Elearn , Melbourne: MUP/Macmillan.).
Background briefing on the research can be provided to the eTraining, eLearning eKnowledge Asia Pacific Forum but a point of discussion is also advanced for consideration.
The growing trend in the so-called ‘second wave of elearning' is for practitioners and vendors to separate post-2003 approaches to elearning from previous approaches. This second wave promises greater value-add to businesses and individual users. Nevertheless, as research in the Learn to Elearn project uncovered, the ‘second wave' while focused on improved outcomes, still fails to appreciate the overall lack of theoretical rigour in the conceptualisation of what makes elearning viable when implemented in a community or business institution.
A focus on e-learning has been diluted both in terms of any theoretical construct or its application by web-based or online-centric approaches that see elearning being implemented in businesses and community organisations as a simple extension of training for skills, i.e. the etraining paradigm. There is an urgent need to advance more complete theoretical and strategic models that can make sense of how the electronic aspects of learning can better enable a more integrated approach to the management of learning, performance, knowledge, service and change. An approach where the spend on elearning is tied to not just learning outcomes but processes that tangibly contribute to such ‘crass' commercial considerations as an organisation's overall productive capability, knowledge capital and net worth.
At the heart of any view on deploying elearning to enhance organisational outcomes is the need to appreciate elearning's role in building capabilities. Elearning can do this by encouraging not only skills development but transfer of ‘hidden' knowledge. The current educational and vendor focus has been on technologies and approaches that push content that has a known outcome or ascribed purpose; i.e. it is codified, explicit and can be easily transferred. It is contended the competitive advantage for many companies' lies in their capability to deploy elearning to capture, transfer and generate all forms of knowledge, especially tacit knowledge that is usually highly embedded in a specific context or relationship. This has profound implications for the design of learning and any supporting services, technology or infrastructure.
Tsukuba University, Japan
Professor Dong Shen Cai received the B. S. degree in Aeronautics from the University of Tokyo, Japan, the M. S. degree in Aero/Astronautics from Stanford University, California, the Doctoral degree in Aeronautics from the University of Tokyo, and the PhD degree in Aero/Astronautics and Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 1990.
From 1992, he joined the Institute of Electronics and Information Sciences (IEIS), the University of Tsukuba, Japan. He is now an associate professor of IEIS and is the director of the computational and visualization sciences laboratory. He is also leading the virtual center of excellence and e-learning projects using the ultra fast
Internet satellite, which is established by Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency. His main research interest includes building parallel numerical space weather simulator on PC clusters, parallel particle simulation code, creating interactive media using artificial life theory, and interactive multimedia education using an Internet satellite. He is a member of ACM and AGU.
Central Queensland University
Patrick Danaher is Associate Professor and Head of the Learning, Evaluation, Innovation and Development (LEID) Centre in the Division of Teaching and Learning Services at Central Queensland University, Australia. He has published in the areas of the pedagogical and sociocultural dimensions of educational technologies and educational equity and access for minority learners and marginalised groups. His particular research interest is with the education of occupational Travellers such as circus and fairground people. He has (co-)edited special theme issues of the _International Journal of Educational Research_ (2000), the _Queensland Journal of Educational Research_ (2001) and the _Journal of Research in Rural Education_ (in press).
Course management systems are software systems that are specifically designed and marketed to educational institutions to support teaching and learning and that typically provide tools for communication, student assessment, presentation of study material and organisation of student activities. In 2003 at Central Queensland University, an Australian regional university with national and international campuses, the decision was made to implement Blackboard as its preferred course management system. The current challenge is to develop pedagogical and assessment strategies that render this system a facilitator of effective and equitable e-learning rather than a bureaucratic straitjacket or a technological nightmare.
As well as drawing on online survey and face to face interview data, this paper deploys some of the ideas of Michael Singh (2002, in press) to interrogate Blackboard about its likely capacity to assist in the construction of knowledge producing communities. In particular, the paper ‘questions' Blackboard about what it might do to foster closer integration of Australian and international students, metropolitan and regional students and Indigenous and non-Indigenous students into such communities. While judgment must be reserved until the further roll out of Blackboard as Central Queensland University's e-learning management system, its initial answers to these questions are not encouraging about the prospects for knowledge producing communities being created.
References
Singh, M. G. (2002). Rewriting the ways of globalising education? _Race Ethnicity and Education_, _5_(2), 217-230.
Singh, M. G. (in press). Enabling transnational learning communities: Policies, pedagogies and politics of educational power. In P. Nimnes (Ed.), _Internationalising higher education: Critical perspectives for critical times_. Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre, University of Hong Kong and Kluwer.
* David Jones and Jo Luck are also members of the research team that is investigating the introduction of Blackboard to Central Queensland University.
Director, Macquarie University E-learning Centre of Excellence (MELCOE)
James has been involved in e-learning innovation since 1996. Co-founder of WebMCQ, one of Australia's first e-learning companies, he has worked with education sector, corporate and government e-learning clients through WebMCQ for the past six years, particularly in the areas of online assessment, courseware development and consulting services. James has recently left WebMCQ to take up a full time position as Director of the Macquarie E-learning Centre of Excellence (MELCOE) – a research centre for next generation e-learning technologies. MELCOE projects include: “COLIS”, an internationally acclaimed e-learning integration project; “MAMS”, an access and identity management infrastructure project; and development of the ground breaking “LAMS” system based on the concepts of Learning Design.
Learning Design is a new area of e-learning based on sequences of collaborative learning activities. Sequences can be easily created, modified, stored, retrieved and adapted. They provide a new dimension to re-use - one that is based on "process" rather than "content". Learning Design has the potential to support a wide range of educational theories and models, not just the single learner, self-paced training model that currently dominates most e-learning today.
In this presentation, James will illustrate the concept of Learning Design based on the recently developed "Learning Activity Management System" (LAMS). LAMS illustrates authoring and adaptation of Learning Designs using a simple, visual authoring environment. LAMS has been internationally acclaimed as a significant new development in the field of e-learning.
CERNET-Blackboard
Karl Engkvist,Chief Operating Officer, CERNET-Blackboard Information Technology Company, is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the joint venture between Blackboard and CERNET. Blackboard provides e-Education software systems to more than 2,800 clients around the world; CERNET is the Ministry of Education-appointed provider of network management and development for more than 1,000 Chinese universities. The purpose of the joint venture is to deploy high quality eLearning software and services to China's education system – including primary, middle, and higher education institutions.
Karl joined Blackboard in 1999; prior to moving to Beijing, he served in a variety of positions, including Vice President of Strategic Development, Vice President of Operations, and Director of Business Development.
Mr. Engkvist previously worked for nearly ten years for The Princeton Review, a leading provider of test preparation services and products. While there, he successively and successfully led three of the largest company markets serviced. Prior to joining The Princeton Review, Mr. Engkvist spent two years in New York at Unisys, in sales positions serving money center banks.
Over the last ten years, China has invested heavily in the development of a higher education network infrastructure (CERNET). This network now connects more than 1,000 universities and facilitates the further modernization of the Chinese education system. With the network in place, the next stage will be to utilize value-added software and other systems in order to increase both the quality of education and the number of students educated. Each of these components is necessary if China is to continue to enjoy its dramatic economic performance - which in part will require greater numbers of workers prepared to work in the knowledge economy. Since moving to China, I have traveled to a number of universities and begun to understand the challenges that China faces. E-Learning offers a partial solution to some of these challenges. My presentation will include some observations from these trips, and some thoughts on how to collaborate with Chinese institutions seeking to learn from the experiences of so-called 'foreign' universities from Asia, and from around the world.
Singapore Polytechnic
Paul works in the Educational Staff Development Department at Singapore Polytechnic as an Educational Development Specialist/ Instructional Designer , and Staff Trainer . His elearning experiences began with the arrival of computers in the classrooms of British Columbia , Canada, back in 1982. He has been designing and developing elearning content for the web since 1995. His current portfolio includes the design, development, scripting and project management of online Modules.
As well, he trains trains lecturers in the use of content development, management and delivery tools, i.e., authoring tools (Dreamweaver), Learning Systems (Blackboard) and Virtual Classroom technologies (Centra). His research interest in effective online pedagogy extends to the role that cognitive neuroscience and cognitive psychology may play in the development of what he calls technological connoisseurship: the art and science of online presentation. He is also a Certified Teacher, Teacher Trainer, Premiere Workshop Presenter.
Effective Online Learning currently sails upon a swirling sea of powerful waves. Accordingly, those who seek to design and deliver online material must understand the nature of these waves if the ship upon which they currently sail is to make the journey successfully. What then are these waves and how do they appear? One wave commanding considerable attention is known as the delivery model . It is deceptive for it can appear one moment as ‘ blended learning' and in the very same instant change to ‘fully online.' Another powerful wave is called ‘ audience. ' It is fickle, for it can appear both as ‘ desperate to learn' or ‘needing to be seduced.' Yet another is the treacherous twins who have been known to founder many a good ship. Twin A builds on the debate surrounding the absence of strong theoretical foundations governing the application of computer based instruction, and is called: Is the research pseudo-science ? (Reeves 1993). Twin B arises from the lack of well-designed media comparison studies to measure learning effectiveness and is known as: how effective is technology driven education?' (Joy and Garcia 2000) Finally, and perhaps more importantly, there are the serial waves which arrive steadily and are known variously as constructivist or discovery based orientation ( Doolittle 1999, Johanssen 2001, Oliver 2003), the conversational framework ( Laurillard 2001) and/or the design must reflect the reality of learner differences or orientations. (Martinez 2001)
Given such a tumultuous sea, this paper advocates that the ship's compass heading must be: Good teaching is good teaching, be it in a Face-to-Face ( F2F) or online environment. Further, that the ease with which the vessel known as Effective Online Learning, negotiates these contentious waves will be consonant with the ability of its crew of educators to morph good teaching practices to the online environment. And finally, that such morphing must occur within an easily understood framework, supported by recognised dimensions of effective online learning and teaching. (Levin, Waddoups, Levin, & Buell, 2001).
Chief Executive Officer, Open Learning Australia since July 2003
Chief Executive Officer of the Innovation Economy Advisory Board, Victoria.2002-03 and Secretary, Victorian Department of Education & Training 2001-02.
Executive Director of the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee, the national representative organisation for Australia's universities, from 1996 to 2001.
From 1993 to 1996 Secretary to the Australian Department of Environment, Sport and Territories, from 1988 to 1993 Secretary to the Australian Department of Health, Housing and Community Services, and from 1987 to 1988 Deputy Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
Board appointments have included: La Trobe University Council; Australian Council for Educational Research; Victorian Curriculum & Assessment and Qualifications Authorities and Learning & Employment Skills Commission; International Association of Universities; Australian Qualifications Framework Advisory Board; Australian Heritage Commission; Australian Sports Commission; Health Insurance Commission; and Australian Institute of Health & Welfare.
Chaired the Federal-State heads of education committee (AESOC) in 2001-02 and before that a higher education representative on the then Education Network Australia (EdNA) Reference Committee.
Studied at the Universities of Tasmania and Oxford and the Australian National University and has degrees in English Language & LiteratureThe varying motivations, skills levels and needs of students means that simple, low unit cost on-line or distance delivery is not likely to be sufficient for many students. For students who need more support can online discussion groups make up for the lack of face-to-face engagement? What working models, this-tech or traditional, are available to supplement distance delivery with additional support, including face-to-face tutorials, discussion groups etc. How do we deal with the damage this does to the traditional business model?
Nanyang Technogical University
Professor Hedberg is Professor of Instructional Science, National Institute of Education, an institute of Nanyang Technological University. He has written and edited numerous books and articles in the area of instructional design, adult education and training, educational technology and policy implications of new technologies in education. Dr Hedberg is currently the Editor-in-Chief of Educational Media International, published by Taylor and Francis London, a refereed journal for those interested in the application of media and technology in learning contexts throughout the world. He currently serves on the Editorial Advisory Boards of the Journal of Interactive Learning Research, ALT-J and Distance Education. His teaching and research interests focus upon cognitive strategies, interface design for learning with information and communications technologies, and implementation and evaluation of technology based learning. He has also written widely on policy aspects of new technologies in education. He also has been a professional video producer and designed open and distance learning programs. He was the executive producer for the Australia on CD project “ StageStruck: Theatre Interactive ” which won a number of multimedia awards including the 1998 Gold EMMA (European Multimedia Award) and the 1998 BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) Interactive Treatment award.
NextEd Ltd
Terry has been involved in the venture capital industry for the last 10 years in Japan, China, the USA and Australia, primarily dealing with telecommunications and information technology related investments. Most recently he has become involved in the education industry leading to the formation of NextEd Limited. Terry holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Town and Country Planning from the University of Sydney.
The impact of the internet upon higher education has thus far been one of a sustaining innovation. Is there any evidence that a combination of the internet and other innovations are leading to a more radical disaggregation of the industry and a shift in which actors in the industry accrue value?
Education of Queensland
Ken Jewell has been working in the field of ICTs in teaching and Learning since 1986. Between 1986 and 1989 he studied under Professor Stephen Heppell, one of the UK's leading computers-in-education authority. Ken has wide expertise in the design, development, production and the deployment of computer based teaching materials in primary and secondary schools.
As Acting Assistant Director ICTs and Learning Ken was responsible for leading the three major drivers of e-learning in Education Queensland, the Learning Place, the Curriculum Exchange and the Virtual Schooling Service
The ‘Learning Place' provides Education Queensland with the vehicle to deliver strategic leadership in the innovative use of the Internet for learning and promote the use of information communication technologies in a fully integrated methodology.
Currently Ken is Manager of Education Queensland's Virtual Schooling Service.
The key challenge for Education Queensland and educational institutions in general is to change the way teaching and learning takes place to take advantage of the new technologies available. Education Queensland has an aging teaching force with an approximate average age of 45 who have well-established methods of teaching. The issue is to engage these teachers in the e-learning agenda and ICTs in general and drive Education Queenslands commitment to flexible delivery of educational services.
Our ongoing challenge is to cater for the learning needs of the students of tomorrow while supporting the teachers of today, schools are being called on to educate:
Teachers willingly accept new practices that are teacher friendly, that make their lives better or easier in some ways. Teachers do not mind doing something that is unfamiliar or difficult provided they can see some real benefit to students and that the effort demanded is not unreasonable. So our challenge is to make sure our implementation strategy is inclusive of teacher's needs. Central to this strategy was the use of Learning Place http://education.qld.gov.au/learningplace/ and in particular the use of Learning Place Mentors and Professional Learning Communities.
There has been considerable expenditure on the hardware and software to establish e-learning networks and infrastructure but little on implementation and the management of change for the people impacted. In the past this has resulted in the lack of take-up or inappropriate use.
Monash University
Sally is the Associate Dean, responsible for post graduate and flexible education within the Faculty of Business and Economics at Monash University. The Faculty operates across 5 Australian and 2 International campuses with approximately 15 thousand students.
The Faculty was one of the early adopters of learning management systems and has been using WebCT since 1996. Monash University has one of the largest cohorts of students, within Australia, using a learning management system as a significant part of their educational experience. Sally's interests include the adoption of innovations, the impact of diverse student and staff groups on the implementation of learning management systems, and collaborative online teaching and learning environments.
University of South Australia
Prof. Bruce King is Director of the Flexible Learning Centre at the University of South Australia and has been significantly involved in open and distance education for over twenty five years. For three years (1995-1997) he worked as Director of Southern Sydney Institute of TAFE and on various consultancy projects. He has been associated with Open Learning Australia since its inception and is a member of its Academic Programs Committee. He Chairs the Board of Knowledge South, the UniSA IT commercialisation company. For 2004, he is Vice President of the Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia.
His international involvements include membership of the ICDE Conference Planning Committee in 2001, the International Advisory Board of the Centre for Research in Distance and Adult Learning at the Open University of Hong Kong, the editorial board of Open Learning, and he participates in Board meetings of the Global University Alliance. In 2000, he was the Australian member at an Expert Meeting on Distance Education organised by UNESCO at the Institute for Information Technologies in Education in Moscow and has represented Australia in both Thailand and Japan. He is Board member of the National Universities of Technology Network in the USA and regularly presents at national and international conferences.
Higher education is presently confronting three challenges – globalisation, technological developments, and reduction in government funding sources - which both oblige and enable universities to transform traditional teaching arrangements, particularly in offshore settings (Kenway, 1995; Nunan, 2000; and King, 2003). Technological developments open up new possibilities for teaching and learning arrangements and the provision of student support, but also serve to underline the need for disaggregated teaching models which strike at conventional notions of academic responsibility and teaching autonomy. Universities as institutions, however, are not suited to the new partnerships essential to such disaggregation and face enormous difficulties deriving from their organisational culture. That they will have to overcome such difficulties is inevitable. The issue is compounded in that developed countries may lose part of their competitive position in the provision of transnational education as developing nations leapfrog stages in the adoption of new technologies and move towards other technology-based delivery options to meet local demand.
Nunan, T. (2000) ‘Predicting new territories and structures – distance education in the new millennium' unpublished paper, Flexible Learning Centre, University of South Australia.
Kenway, J. (Ed.) (1995) Marketing Education: some Critical Issues , Deakin University Press, Geelong.
King, B.S. (2003) ‘Transnational distance education – the critical role of partnership', paper accepted for the International Council of Distance and Open Education Biennial Conference, Hong Kong, February 2003.
This issue is of significance because increasingly universities are using international income to underpin their viability. The demands of such provision necessitate the advantages afforded by ICT developments, but these also challenge traditional ways of teaching and supporting students. There are real complexities because even when universities have their own developed e-learning environments, they may not be able to operate them reliably in countries like China and Vietnam which have government controlled firewalls. They can only proceed with a partner who has servers within country and that may involve a different learning management system. This requires that academics not only work with partners with different organisational cultures but also relinquish responsibility for aspects of learning management.
Straits Knowledge
Patrick Lambe is founder and Principal Consultant of Straits Knowledge, a research and consulting firm focused on e-learning, knowledge management and innovation. Trained as a professional librarian with a Master's in Information Studies, he has spent the last 13 years working in training and development, e-learning and knowledge management in Singapore. Prior to founding Straits Knowledge, he was Chief Learning Officer at e-learning company Knowledge Platform. He is an Associate Professor (Adj) at Nanyang Technological University where he teachers on the Master's in KM programme, and President of the Information and Knowledge Management Society. Patrick writes and speaks internationally on knowledge management and e-learning, and his book The Blind Tour Guide was published in May 2002.
Design of e-learning has gone through two phases – in the first phase, a lot of content was developed in an improvisational manner, highly templated to achieve productivity and cost gains, and using tools that were either very feature poor (web page design, Powerpoint) or tools that were feature rich but difficult to figure out (authorware). In the second phase, there was a convergence of authoring tools improved in features and usability, metadata standards became more important for interoperability, and awareness of instructional design methodologies grew, so that it became politically correct to design to standards using traditional ID approaches. The result, however, has been the steady pressure away from innovation in elearning content design, which has become the domain of the specialist (authoring tool expert, metadata expert, ID expert). In particular, the validity and appropriacy of traditional ID approaches (based on assumptions of pre-digital learner contexts) for digital content and its diverse uses, has not been sufficiently examined.
Parallel to this, innovation and experimentation in informational and knowledge representation has continued outside the direct sphere of e-learning, in web journalism, web advertising, and knowledge object design within tacit KM projects. E-learning risks over-stabilisation too early and becoming irrelevant to the fast moving learning and knowledge supply needs of corporates and other organizations – which are typically finding that they want to create rich knowledge objects quickly, using internal skills, and discard them or adapt them when they become outdated. The days of the specialist content outsource house are numbered. If e-learning is to remain relevant, authoring tools need to get simpler and more flexible, metadata collection needs to become automated, the strait jacket of traditional instructional design methodologies needs to be exploded, and rich collections of experimental and innovative content need to become visible to users and developers alike.
Director New Media and Digital Services, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
She has over 19 years experience in the broadcasting industry and held a series of senior broadcasting positions in New Zealand before joining the ABC in 2000.
As Director of New Media & Digital Services, she is responsible for the integrated delivery of the ABC's digital content, including ABC Online, broadband services, digital and interactive TV, SMS, MMS and other emerging platforms.
Lynley manages the ABC's digital strategy and content development, and represents
the Corporation's interests on various industry groups addressing the development
of digital broadcasting.
Media consumption amongst young people is rapidly changing. Teenagers have integrated Internet and wireless into their lives more than any other age group. Having grown up with Internet and mobile phones they are technologically adept, and are used to a rapid introduction of new consumer technologies. Current research on young people's use of media has identified a heavy co-presence of media technologies in children's bedrooms. In this environment the habits of multi-tasking across platforms is becoming engrained. As part of our core objectives, NM & DS is employing an audience-driven content development model to meet audience demand in a changing media environment.
The key issue to be explored in this presentation is how do we deliver audience-relevant, engaging and integrated education packages across multiple platforms.
e-Learning Post
A cursory glance of most design-related fields reveal the importance of in-depth research before design, usually interpreted as quality-before-design . Take the case of web design—e-learning's close neighbour.
Web design started out as webpage design and over a short period of time transformed itself into web experience design—from a focus on the product to a focus on the holistic experience. The main driver for this transformation was the reliance on research before design, as is reflected by the number of books* published on this subject in the last couple of years. The same cannot be said for e-learning design, as is reflected by the homogeneity or sameness of many e-learning solutions.
Here are some issues that could be addressed at the e-Agenda forum:
Design Research: Methods and Perspectives
Brenda Laurel, Editor (October 2003)
Observing the User Experience: A practitioner's Guide to User Research
Mike Kuniavsky (April, 2003)
The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web
Jesse James Garrett (October, 2002)
Centre for Learning Research, Griffith University
John Stevenson is foundation Professor of Post-Compulsory Education and Training at Griffith University (1992-present). Other recent foundation appointments have included: Editor, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Vocational Education Research (1993-present); Director, Centre for Learning Research (2003-); Leader of a Griffith University designated area of research excellence (1996-); Director Centre for Skill Formation Research and Development (1992-1995); and Head of various academic schools at Griffith University (1989-2000). Previously he served in several senior positions in vocational education and training from 1972 to 1989 (including Director of Educational Review, Assistant Director Curriculum, and Principal of Kangaroo Point College of TAFE).
His research interests are: knowledge, learning, learning environments and vocational education. He has won many competitive research grants and is the author of numerous publications, including three edited books; 20 book chapters ; over 40 journal articles; a co-edited special edition of the International Journal of Educational Research ; and 70 national and international conference papers and keynote addresses.
His other appointments have included, membership of many national and international editorial boards, membership of the New Zealand Education Panel for performance-based research funding to New Zealand Universities, and External Examiner for the Hong Kong Institute of Education.
The challenges and problems of e-learning are often separated into those to do with pedagogy, technology, equity and management. For these reasons, developments are often not congruent and potentially important advances are not realised. Using Cultural Historical Activity theory, this paper conceptualises e-learning as a collective mediated activity – one mediated by curriculum statements, teaching and learning theories, technologies, learning materials, teachers, the learners themselves, various rules and regulations. The actions of the various players (curriculum designers, web developers, service providers, teachers, technicians and so on) make sense then, only in the light of the collective object(ive) towards which each contributes. It is the shared collective activity that gives meaning to the individual actions of the different people involved.
However, even with an initial agreed collective object(ive), it is inevitable that problems and tensions will develop, and this will eventually be reflected in differences in the actual objects with which the different people involved engage. What was once a shared activity can become a more-or-less related set of different actions, where the different goals are not collectively understood. For instance different people, apparently involved in the same e-learning activity, may move to directing their efforts towards such different primary goals as: covering the content, getting the learners engaged, achieving pre-specified learning outcomes, improving access, enriching meaning, making learning asynchronous, making interactions seamless, overcoming capacity and speed problems, simulating reality, encouraging interaction, building connections among content and the different ways in which it can be represented, building technological literacy, building the capacity for independent learning, saving money, and so on. A cultural-historical activity theory framework is powerful in making visible the various tensions and contradictions that exist in an activity, and finding ways to resolve these tensions. One important way of reconciling differences and developing new collective activity is to expand the object such that it encompasses more future possibilities. It is in the re-development of the object that there is an opportunity to make quantum leaps in the ways in which e-learning can become qualitatively superior to more traditional forms of learning in preparing people to engage successfully with a changing world. For instance, from a cognitive perspective, one of the major challenges for individuals in a plural and changing society is to be able to connect different ways of knowing – this could become one of the many possible ingredients in discussions which lead to a re-fashioning the object of e-learning.
City University of HongKong
Douglas R. Vogel is Professor (Chair) of Information Systems at the City University of Hong Kong and formerly at the University of Arizona, USA. He received his M.S. in Computer Science from U.C.L.A. in 1972 and his Ph.D. in Business from the University of Minnesota in 1986. Professor Vogel's research interests bridge the business and academic communities in addressing questions of the impact of management information systems on aspects of interpersonal communication, group problem solving, cooperative learning, and multi-cultural team productivity. His interests reflect a concern for encouraging efficient and effective managerial utilization of computer systems in an atmosphere conducive to enhancing the quality of working life. He has published widely and directed extensive research on group support systems and technology support for education. He has been ranked 3 rd in a journal report of top researchers in Group Support Systems and ranked 10 th in a worldwide list of top researchers in MIS as well as 4 th in the list of most collaborative information systems researchers. He is currently researching mobile commerce and mobile e-learning applications with sponsorship from a consortium of institutions and businesses. He is especially active in introducing collaborative technology into enterprises and educational systems.
Mobile e-learning involves the creation and use of mobile device based applications in and out of classroom contexts. The creative use of emerging mobile devices coupled with sound pedagogically driven applications provides an opportunity to extend traditional teaching and create learning environments that will be well received by students. Properly applied, these devices extend instructional and institutional support capability by putting resources directly in the hands of the students. Further, these environments become personalized as students become more actively engaged. There are, however, many issues that need to be addressed on technological, course, faculty and institutional levels for these opportunities to become universally successful and sustainable. Embarking on a project like this that uses “cutting edge technology” requires careful attention to trends so that as little work as possible is wasted on avenues that close off as particular platforms lose popularity or go out of business, are ready to make use of newest technologies as they emerge to help overcome current limitations, etc. Activities, courses and curricula need to be designed that synergistically incorporate technological opportunities. Pedagogically defined requirements need to drive technology and application development. Faculty development and institutional support needs to be provided that enables learning on all levels in an integrated fashion with special attention to quality of life.