Current Thinking Online

There is currently a technological revolution taking place in higher education. The growth of e-learning is being described as explosive, unprecedented, and above all, disruptive. (E-Learning in the 21st Century, D R Garrison and Terry Anderson, 2003 )

Online learning, or e-learning, as it is also referred to, has now become an essential part of University life. Educators need to be properly equipped to meet the challenge and align their teaching methods with the changing learning styles of its learners who are the emerging leaders and change agents of tomorrow. A more descriptive term would be "teaching with technology" as it is as applicable to only face-to-face teaching, as it is to teaching remote or distance students.  Many of our students have grown up with technology and this has impacted on their preferred ways of learning. Students born between 1982 and 1991 have been described as 'Net Generation' learners. They have been described as digitally literate; connected; social; prefer working in groups; achievement oriented; require structure and guidelines; crave interactivity; have short attention spans; are experiential, visual, kinaesthetic learners; and prefer working on things that matter. See Educating the Net Generation .

University of Adelaide students reflect many of the characteristics of 'Net Generation' learners and a recent student survey indicated that 91% of over 1400 University of Adelaide students surveyed considered themselves digitally literate when they commenced their studies. Even though they do not necessarily want to learn wholly in an online environment, University of Adelaide students do want more consistent use of those online learning features which add value to their face-to-face classes and provide interactivity, experiential learning, group work and structure. However a common finding both locally and across Australasia is that academic staff have insufficient time and/or resources as well as very large class sizes.

To address this, there are various cases of exemplary online teaching practices at the University of Adelaide which the CLPD's Online Learning team uses as models for professional staff development activities. The Online Learning team further assists by undertaking research and providing professional development to assist staff in the area of online learning and meeting the expectations of its learners. This includes workshops and assistance for lecturers in areas such as online pedagogy, instructional design, multimedia and assessment in order to equip them with the necessary expertise to build more educationally effective MyUni courses to supplement the traditional face to face lectures, tutorials and workshops. This is often referred to as a blended approach to learning.

Recent initiatives include streaming media, synchronous learning, audio-narrated presentations, podcasts and webinars (live online interactive conferences). Collaboration in the area of situational learning is also a focus, one outcome being the implementation of the Online Situational Learning Project. The impact of online technologies on how research is changing is another new area of investigation which is incorporated in the Graduate Certificate of Online Learning (Higher Education).

The links on the lefthand side navigation provide further information on current international online thinking.