Abstract not available

This study focuses on student listening needs in the context of the English for Academic Purposes program taught by distance education at the University of the South Pacific. It explores the relationship between learners� awareness of the learning strategy they use for developing their listening skills and their teachers� knowledge of the strategy use and listening needs of learners. Using an ethnographic case study approach, the study was conducted at various campuses and centres of the University of the South Pacific. Interviews were conducted with five EAP/study skills teachers, five subject/course teachers, 19 past learners and 10 present learners of the EAP/study skills course. Questionnaire data was also obtained from 19 past learners and 153 present learners. In addition, a course material analysis was carried out. The study confirms and adds weight to the conclusions of earlier researchers such as Berne (1998), and Mendelsohn (2001) who explain that discrepancies exist between L2 listening research and practice. The findings of this research indicate that teachers differ from their learners in terms of learners� knowledge and understanding of listening skills and learning strategies in use. The findings also indicate that even though learning had taken place in this distance education context some face-to-face teaching would have been desirable. A combination of distance teaching with longer teacher-learner contact for distance teaching of listening skills is recommended, since regular contact between teachers and learners is seen by learners as very beneficial and more likely to lead to a better development of listening skills. It also helps create an awareness of learners� present and future listening needs. The nature of distance teaching at the University of the South Pacific, and the challenges faced by both teachers and learners are discussed in this study, and the requirement for further needs analysis in regard to distance EAP courses are noted. The study concludes with recommendations for strategy training for distance learners as well as for raising teacher awareness about the importance of strategy teaching. It is also recommended that similar studies be undertaken in other language skills courses offered by distance at universities like USP such as reading, writing and speaking courses.

Master of Engineering (Research) / Educational standards are having a significant impact on e-Learning. They allow for better exchange of information among different organizations and institutions. They simplify reusing and repurposing learning materials. They give teachers the possibility of personalizing them according to the student’s background and learning speed. Thanks to these standards, off-the-shelf content can be adapted to a particular student cohort’s context and learning needs. The same course content can be presented in different languages. Overall, all the parties involved in the learning-teaching process (students, teachers and institutions) can benefit from these standards and so online education can be improved. To materialize the benefits of standards, learning resources should be structured according to these standards. Unfortunately, there is the problem that a large number of existing e-Learning materials lack the intrinsic logical structure required, and further, when they have the structure, they are not encoded as required. These problems make it virtually impossible to share these materials. This thesis addresses the following research question: How to make the best use of existing open learning resources available on the Internet by taking advantage of educational standards and specifications and thus improving content reusability?In order to answer this question, I combine different technologies, techniques and standards that make the sharing of publicly available learning resources possible in innovative ways. I developed and implemented a three-stage tool to tackle the above problem. By applying information extraction techniques and open e-Learning standards to legacy learning resources the tool has proven to improve content reusability. In so doing, it contributes to the understanding of how these technologies can be used in real scenarios and shows how online education can benefit from them. In particular, three main components were created which enable the conversion process from unstructured educational content into a standard compliant form in a systematic and automatic way. An increasing number of repositories with educational resources are available, including Wikiversity and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology OpenCourseware. Wikivesity is an open repository containing over 6,000 learning resources in several disciplines and for all age groups [1]. I used the OpenCourseWare repository to evaluate the effectiveness of my software components and ideas. The results show that it is possible to create standard compliant learning objects from the publicly available web pages, improving their searchability, interoperability and reusability.

The author's ethnographic study of a professional development program for managers and aspiring managers taught at a distance intends to make a substantial contribution to both the theory and practice of continuing education for professionals. The study focused on a group of Deakin University Master of Business Administration (MBA) participants and their experiences of the final two years of the program. Theorising on the professional development experience was based on data gathered from the direct observation of participants working in their study groups and at residential schools. Moreover, data drawn from end-of-year interviews with participants and discussions with MBA teachers also contributed to the theorising process. Theorising spanned a broad set of interactions encompassing participants' formal educational, professional and personal worlds. The thesis is devoted to two aspects of the professional development experience, namely: participants' interactions in their study groups and at residential schools; and participants' attempts to grow and develop as competent professional practitioners during their MBA studies. Interactions with key learning contexts orchestrated by the teaching institution (i.e. study groups and residential schools) are grounded in an analysis of the changing group cultures observed to accommodate the different educational demands of the program. Group interaction on a broader scale is also analysed in the context of the residential schools. The residential school provided a powerful forum for the development of participant activism over the future development of the MBA program. The analysis of the study groups in action led the author to identify the key characteristics of effective educational work groups. The implications of the success of these essentially egalitarian and leaderless groups for the formation of self-managed groups in the workplace is examined. On the matter of professional development, the author reveals the relationships between the nature of participants' jobs, their search for professional integration, their stage of professional empowerment, the strategies they pursued either to empower themselves or others in their organisations and the barriers which were encountered in the pursuit of empowerment. Dramatic examples of professional disempowerment are analysed indicating that interaction between formal off-the-job learning and professional practice in the workplace is not necessarily a smooth and positive experience. The group of participants studied are seen to be heterogeneous in relation to the above factors characterising professional development The implications of the theorising are considered in relation to professional pedagogies, assessment strategies and distance education. Distance education is seen to socially construct the roles of both teachers and students in the educational process. Specifically, teachers are seen to be somewhat marginalised during the program in use whereas the participants are located at the centre of the educational experience. The primacy of participants in the educational process is highlighted through the growing reliance on self-and peer-group assessment skills as participants progressed through the program. It is argued that the teaching institution should encourage and maintain the development of these skills as they represent a major learning outcome of the professional development experience, i.e. the ability to engage in the process of critical self-reflection and informed action.

This thesis examines the learning preferences and learning strategies of apprentices, and the contexts within which they learn in their workplaces. Since the end of the 1980s Australian vocational education and training (VET) structures and processes have undergone radical change in attempts to develop skills in the workforce that will ensure enterprise, national, and international competitiveness. A major strategy in the national reforms has been the encouragement of flexible delivery as a means through which workplace-based learning can be accessed by a larger number of workers in ways that are cost-efficient, and that reduce the amount of time that workers spend away from their jobs. Although flexible delivery has been championed by governments and industry alike, there has been little attempt to identify the preparedness of either learners or their workplaces for the demands of flexible learning. The thesis examines the economic context for these changes to VET, and also examines the literature available on workplace learning. Additionally, the thesis examines the conceptualisations of flexible delivery that are available in the literature, pointing to the possibility that the wide range of meanings associated with the term ‘flexible delivery’ may result in quite different practices and expectations. The thesis also examines the literature on independent learning and self-directed learning, and explores the concept of ‘client-focused’ flexible delivery. The study of learner preferences uses data collected from apprentices over a period of some years, in the four occupational areas commanding the highest number of apprentices in Australia. These occupational areas are Metals and Machining, Building, Electrical, and Hairdressing. These data on learning preferences are collected using the commercially available Canfield Learning Styles Inventory (CLSI). The data from the sample of 389 apprentices are analysed statistically through analyses of variance, and indicate that variables such as age, gender, and occupational area are related to learning preferences. Apprentices are shown by this analysis to prefer structured programs of instruction that are instructor-led, and to not have a high preference for independent learning or the development of their own learning goals. Additionally, they are shown to have very low preferences for learning through reading, preferring instead to learn through direct hands-on experience. While these characteristics are largely common among the four occupational groups, the Hairdressing apprentices are shown to have a slightly higher preference for independent learning and goal setting. Females are shown to have a higher preference than males for learning qualitative material through reading. Interestingly, the younger apprentices are shown to have a higher preference than the older ones for self-directed learning. Some possibilities for that finding are discussed. The research also shows that the learning preferences displayed by different groups of apprentices in any one program are much the same over time, providing some confidence that data generated from one group of apprentices can be used to make instructional decisions for future groups in the same program. The data are also factor analysed to indicate three major factors underlying apprentice learning preferences. The first factor indicates a Verbal–Non-verbal preference factor, with apprentices clearly preferring to learn through non-verbal means. A second factor is described as Structure–Content, with apprentices showing a preference for learning from structured programs in a structured environment. A third factor, Self-directed–Social preference, indicates apprentices preferring to learn through socially mediated presentations and contexts rather than through more independent forms of learning. Qualitative data are also generated through interviewing eight apprentices, and focusing on the learning strategies they employ while constructing knowledge in the workplace. That component of the research uses a modification of the Marland, Patching and Putt (1992a, 1992b) stimulated recall technique, and a set of learning strategies derived from the work of O’Malley and Chamot (1990) and Billett (1996a). The eight apprentices are drawn from the Metals and Machining, Electrical, and Hairdressing trades. The findings indicate that the learning strategies most often used by apprentices in the workplace are those associated with the construction of knowledge that is structured and provided by the instructor or learning program, and those that include social mediation of learning. Additionally, the strategies associated with demonstration and hands-on practice are most favoured. The qualitative data are confirmatory of the quantitative data. The research also indicates, through the apprentice interviews, that support for apprentice’s learning in their workplace is typically unplanned and haphazard. Their experience was sometimes characterised by a reluctance on the part of the workplace to acknowledge learning needs such as trialling and practice of new knowledge, or pro-actively seeking understanding from other more skilled workers. The learning preferences and learning strategies findings for apprentices, coupled with the findings of typically poor or unplanned support in the workplace, indicate that effective flexible delivery of training to apprentices in the workplace provides a number of challenges. These challenges, it is argued, demand strategies to be developed and implemented to prepare both learners and workplaces for effective engagement with flexible delivery. Using as a theoretical framework Kember’s (1995) two-dimensional model of open learning for adults, the thesis integrates the findings into a proposed two-dimensional model of learner and workplace preparedness for flexible delivery. The model provides for a Learner Development Space, a Workplace Development Space, and a Strategy Space. Within the Learner Development Space, focuses for the development of learner preparedness are identified in terms of self-directed learning, skills developments, and effective participation in a community of practice. Focuses for workplace development identified in the Workplace Development Space are those associated with development of training policies, training structures, and trainer skills and abilities. The Strategy Space then provides detail of seventy-nine specific strategies developed to enhance learner and workplace preparedness within each of the focuses identified.

This thesis examines issues in Australian undergraduate engineering management studies in the context of flexible learning delivery. It is proposed that, within an Australian context: a) the management skills and competencies required by graduate engineers can be determined and classified on a rational basis, permitting an educational focus on those elements most appropriate for graduates; and b) on-line and other computer-based technologies are a practical and effective method for the support of undergraduate engineering management studies. The doctoral project incorporates: • an examination of the nature of engineering management; • a review of the relevant literature establishing the importance of management studies in undergraduate engineering courses; • a review of historical and recent developments in Australian undergraduate engineering management studies; • an investigation of the management skills and competencies required by graduate engineers - based on original research; • an examination of flexible delivery of engineering education - based on professional practice experience; and • an evaluation of case studies of flexible delivery of engineering management education - based on original research and professional practice experience. A framework of ranked classified management skills is developed. Broadly, the ranking framework is generic professional skills, followed by general management skills and technical discipline specific management skills, followed by other professional discipline skills and theoretical skills. This framework provides a rational basis for design of undergraduate engineering management studies. This is supplemented by consideration of the management skills required for the future of engineering practice. It is concluded that undergraduate engineering management education is well suited to delivery and support by on-line and computer-based technology. Recent developments in improved access to the Internet, software systems for on-line collaboration and changes in copyright legislation to create a broad-based right to communication via on-line media have contributed to the facilitation of on-line delivery of teaching and learning. It is noted that though many on-line infrastructure issues have been satisfactorily resolved, higher level issues will emerge as being crucial, including the academic staff development and reward for operating in an online teaching environment and the financial sustainability of on-line development and delivery of courses.

This thesis aims to contribute to the optimising of the educational engagement of low socio-economic and other historically underrepresented populations in undergraduate, web-based distance learning in higher education. It establishes, through theoretical and philosophical argument, the value of a participative justice approach to equity, a social constructionist epistemological framework for curricular praxis, and a relational conceptualisation of networked computing. The project to re-map the terrains of equity, curricular practice, and web-based distance learning in higher education emerges out of a realisation that current maps are restrictive, epistemologically flawed, and theoretically deficient, thereby inhibiting the educational engagement of disadvantaged students and obstructing systemically equitable outcomes. Without a new curricular map web-based distance learning is likely to maintain, if not exacerbate, distance education�s historic record as having the highest levels of inequitable outcomes in higher education. In response, the thesis, taking a critical social constructionist stance, problematises current equity, curricular practice, and networked computing discourses in relation to culture, power, and politics. As a critical postmodernist counter-narrative, the thesis proposes paradigm shifts from an access to a participative approach to equity, from an individual to a social learning model for curricular practice in distance education, and from a technocratic to a relational conceptualisation of networked computing. Web-based distance education is positioned as a site of contestation where the need for equity is greatest and the implementation of a new model of curricular practice is most likely to succeed since web-based distance learning is still a newly emerging mode of study in which academics are themselves newcomers in search of effective curricular practices. This leads to the development of �Critical Interdependent Acculturation� as a �next generation� social constructionist curricular practice for web-based distance learning. Having established the capacity of networked computing to sustain such a curricular practice, this thesis offers academics a new conceptual architecture, �Imaginative Designs for Equitable Achievement of Learning� (IDEAL) to optimise the educational engagement of all students in web-based distance learning in higher education, but especially for those least advantaged. Accordingly, the thesis invites academics to re-evaluate their approach to equity, their epistemic assumptions and to transform rather than transfer old paradigm curricular practices in networked distance learning. The remapping of equity in web-based curricular practices undertaken in this thesis represents a significant contribution to knowledge. The study, by taking a critical postmodernist approach to class, power and social relations, addresses significant research gaps in its theoretical analysis of disadvantaged students in distance education, especially its web-based mode, in which these students are most at risk of educational disengagement. The study targets the operation of social power at the micro-level of curricular practices in higher education and shifts the web-based learning debate from technological access to equitable engagement in its social practices. The reconfiguration of curricular practices to transform the operation of power in mainstream programs positions this study as a groundbreaking project, and by arguing for a systemic curricular response geared towards equitable educational engagement, it affirms that curricular focused research is a significant factor in achieving equity in web-based higher education, rather than being peripheral to it.

Educational change can be defined as a systematic, sustained effort at change in learning conditions and other related internal conditions in one or more schools, with the ultimate aim of accomplishing goals more effectively (Miles 1987). One project designed to bring about educational change was the Country Areas Program National Element (NATCAP) distance education by telematics project, funded by the Commonwealth Department of Employment, Education and Training. It was designed to increase curriculum options to students in schools in the western region of New South Wales. All curriculum was delivered through the telematic delivery. This project formed the basis of the research for this thesis. The aim of the study was to examine the roles of change agents and determine who enacted the roles through the process of implementing the NATCAP distance education by telematics project in western New South Wales. Telematics refers to the transmission of signals usually generated in a computer circuit board over distance. It involves using computers, facsimile machines, modems and telephones. Through audio visual links students in western New South Wales can engage in lessons delivered by teachers located in the Australian Capital Territory. This was achieved through a pilot distance education via telematics project conducted in 1991 which was expanded in 1992-1995 to include students in six rural schools. The students were located in both Catholic and Government schools in four rural town in New South Wales. The NATCAP distance education project was administered by the Catholic Education Office, Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn and a project manager was appointed to facilitate the implementation of the new project. The question of who enacted the roles of change agents through the process of implementing the distance education project in 1992-1995 became the focus of the study. Change is a process that involves the phases of initiation, implementation and adoption according to Fullan (1991b). There are a number of factors that affect implementation including teachers, principals and outside agencies (Fullan 1991b). The initiative of change does not occur, however without an advocate or change agents. Havelock (1973) has identified four roles of a change agent which are described as the catalyst, the solution giver, the process helper and the resource link. Though the examination of the literature the question of who enacted the roles of the change agents through the process of implementing the NATCAP distance education project was refined and clarified. The qualitative research method, with the researcher as an active participant in the process, was the approach which enabled the research question of this thesis to be examined. The researcher was the project manager for the NATCAP distance education project and was placed in a central position to explore the question of who enacted the roles of the change agents through the process of implementing distance education by telematics. Three research instruments, two questionnaires and a semi-structured interview, were used to gather data based on the perceptions of the six participating school principals. This data ensured that the information gathered by the researcher as an active participant was reliable and valid. The results of the first questionnaire, which examined the role of the project manager as a change agent, indicated that the manager was a catalyst, facilitating the introduction of the new method of teaching and learning. The results also indicated that the roles of the solution giver and the resource link were also enacted by the project manager according to the majority of principals who responded to the questionnaire. The role of the process helper, involved in problem-solving, monitoring and reviewing, was also a part of the project manager's role as a change agent according to all the respondents. The results of the second questionnaire which examined the three phases of implementing change indicated that all six schools involved in the NATCAP distance education project were involved in the initiation stage of implementation. This was achieved by trialing the telematic mode for teaching and learning in each school. All six schools moved into the second stage. This developed into the implementation of Indonesian language and culture lessons, Art/Design and Remedial and Extension Mathematics classes. For two schools the implementation stage included the introduction of the Year 11 and 12 curriculum. The project progressed into the third stage, continuation, for five out of the six schools. One school did not move from the implementation to the continuation stage. As a result of the data collected through the examination of the factors that affect implementation it was stated that the principals enacted a role of resource providers and in some cases on the spot support for teachers. In the schools administered by the New South Wales Department of School Education the cluster director was also a resource provider. In some schools the principal was also a "teacher" actively involved in the implementation of the NATCAP distance education project. The project manager, cluster director (where applicable), principal, assistant principals and teachers were listed as being involved in the identification of needs. Need was identified as the most important factor which affected the change. As a result of the data collected and the interpretations made relating to the findings of this research a number of conclusions were drawn. Educational change goes through a process involving three phases from the initial introduction of the innovation to the initial use and then full implementation as part of the school practice. Change involves a change agency, not one agent of change but a team of change agents or a change agency. The change agency includes the project manager, the principal, assistant principal, teachers and cluster directors (where applicable). The agency enacts the roles of catalyst, solution giver, resource link and process helper. Implementation requires an agent of change from within the school and an agent of change from without of the school working together as part of the change agency. This can be seen by examining the factors affecting implementation. Need, practicality, clarity, complexity and quality all affect implementation of an innovation and all required an agent of change from without and agent of change from within the school to identify each factor and address it. The key personnel affecting implementation are the project manager and cluster directors (where applicable) from the external level and the principal and the teachers from the local level. These key personnel are factors which affect implementation and belong to the change agency. The leadership role of the principal impacts on the degree of implementation of the initiative. Teacher involvement through observation, exchanging ideas, team-teaching and collegiality is required to bring about full implementation of the change. Clustering schools to form learning networks where schools share ideas, knowledge and resources enhances the possibility of initiatives becoming implemented. Schools in the cluster should not only include those in the same education system, schools should go outside their system for new ideas. In the NATCAP distance education by telematics project there were four schools administrated by the NSW Department of School Education and two schools administered by the Catholic Education Office, Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn who formed a NATCAP cluster. Together these schools implemented the new method of teaching and learning called telematics. They brought about change in the learning conditions and extended the curriculum.

In higher education greater emphasis is being placed on independent study techniques for both on-campus and off-campus (distance education) students. At the University College of Southern Queensland the development of learning support material has been print based with other media included as supplementary material. The purpose of this study was to see if videotape support material had a mark benefit on the improvement of learning for students using print based study material as their basic learning resource. A Solomon Four-Group research design was used for this study. Subjects comprised all level-three Diploma of Education students of the UCSQ undertaking a creative arts unit. Sculptures produced by the students were assessed by three judges using a rating scale devised by the researcher. Results indicated that no benefit was gained by the addition of videotape support material. Implications for the design and integration of videotape support material in independent study material, and for production procedure are presented in this study.

<p>In the informational age of today, continuous learning is of greatest importance. The demand for this seems to be increasing, while at the same time people are under more pressure to carry out more tasks in shorter amounts of time. A way to solve the problem of finding time to learn could be to make use of the possibilities that Internet offers for learning at a distance. The purpose of this thesis is to, from a pedagogical perspective, contribute to the discussion concerning Internet based distance education for a target population consisting of professionals. We have found that some of the courses included in the two certification programs which we have investigated are suitable for Internet based distance education. Furthermore, we believe that such an educational format should be a complement, and not a substitute, for the target population.</p>