Dhiraj Bhartu - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Dhiraj Bhartu

Research paper thumbnail of Technology-Enabled Environments for Flexible Learning: A Case Study at the University of the South Pacific

The introduction of technology-enhanced learning and teaching environments has been a challenge f... more The introduction of technology-enhanced learning and teaching environments has been a challenge for many educational institutions in terms of providing adequate, effective and efficient ICT tools to enrich the delivery of learning and teaching. Spread across 33 million square kilometers of Pacific Ocean, the University of the South Pacific (USP) encompasses 12 island nations, and thus, the transactional distance between students and teachers represents a multitude of challenges. To deal with these challenges, the University continuously strives to leverage ICT in education. In this paper, the authors describe the innovative approaches and ICT tools used by USP to deliver its courses across its 14 campuses so as to provide the best possible learning experiences to its over 29,000 students who maybe enrolled in any of the four modes of delivery: face-to-face, print, blended and online. The paper will also focus on the strategies, challenges and successes of various ICT tools used to e...

Research paper thumbnail of The Integration of Multimedia for Online and Blended Learning at the University of the South Pacific

The University of the South Pacific (USP) a regional university, established in 1968, serves twel... more The University of the South Pacific (USP) a regional university, established in 1968, serves twelve independent island nations of the South, Central and North Pacific. The University is moving towards providing more of its programmes and courses through flexible delivery using online and blended modes. As a result there has been a gradual increase in the integration of multimedia components such as audio, video, graphics, animations, and simulations as part of courseware or course packages. This increase in demand is anticipated to have further growth. This paper focuses on the current status on the different types of multimedia currently integrated in USP coursewares, and discusses the areas of multimedia that is anticipated to grow over the next few years at USP.

Research paper thumbnail of Open Educational Resources and Practices at the University of the South Pacific: Status Report and Future Directions

Research paper thumbnail of Blending media for flexible learning at a regional university

The University of the South Pacific (USP) a regional university, established in 1968, serves twel... more The University of the South Pacific (USP) a regional university, established in 1968, serves twelve independent island nations of the South, Central and North Pacific. The University is moving towards providing more of its programmes and courses through flexible delivery using online and blended modes. As a result there has been a gradual increase in the integration of multimedia components such as audio, video, graphics, animations, and simulations as part of courseware or course packages. This increase in demand is anticipated to have further growth. This paper focuses on the current status on the different types of multimedia currently integrated in USP coursewares, and discusses the areas of multimedia that is anticipated to grow over the next few years at USP.

Research paper thumbnail of Factors in the deployment of a learning management system at the University of the South Pacific

This paper describes how a new Learning Management System (LMS) was introduced into the Universit... more This paper describes how a new Learning Management System (LMS) was introduced into the University of the South Pacific with the aim of improving teaching and learning. The development process from test and selection of the platform through to project planning, gathering of political support within the institution, technical factors, the design and roll out of training, the impact and consequences, the growth and future prospects of the platform are discussed, with a focus on the university’s redesigned online law program. The paper concludes with the main lessons learned, emphasising the point that the process was characterised by a lack of a formal process or deployment model per se.

Research paper thumbnail of Access to ICT Infrastructure and Devices in the South Pacific

Tenth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning, Sep 1, 2022

Research paper thumbnail of Faculty open educational practices at a regional university

Open educational resources (OER), which are cost-free, openly licensed educational materials avai... more Open educational resources (OER), which are cost-free, openly licensed educational materials available in a variety of languages and formats, have in recent years accumulated abundant evidence of disruptive potential to surmount barriers to learning. This is certainly good news to the world of education, especially higher education, which has experienced steady growth in its cost to students. Evidence also shows, however, a low uptake of this concept in higher education. A key reason for this is a lack of awareness, understanding, and acceptance of OER and their related practices amongst faculty. If one intent of a higher educational institution, such as is that of the University of the South Pacific (USP), is to provide greater affordability for students through OER, ushering faculty towards OER is thus paramount, for they are the ones who normally choose and assign educational resources. As an initial step toward moving the USP closer to its aspirations, a survey study was underta...

Research paper thumbnail of The final countdown 3, 2, 1 … zero: Launching towards a university wide implementation of an ePortfolio system

In today’s digital age educators and governments around the globe are rightfully demanding for mo... more In today’s digital age educators and governments around the globe are rightfully demanding for more reflective practice and social activity in education. Research has shown that, ePortfolios promote reflection (Batson & Chen 2008; Stefani, Mason & Pegler 2007) and social activity (Gerbic & Maher 2008; Zeichner & Wray 2001) in teaching and learning. ePortfolios are shared, reflected and provides a means for students to be mobile and lifelong learners and the types depend of their multiple purposes. In light of these possibilities, ePortfolios has gained major traction in high schools and universities and are becoming increasingly “viable institutional instructional technology to facilitate student learning” (Dordelly-Rosales 2010, p.12). ePortfolio is therefore a promising technology for any educational institution that aspires to meet the demands of educators and governments in today’s very dynamic learning and teaching environment.

Research paper thumbnail of Recalibrating Institutional Choreographies for future-focused learning and teaching

Revista da FAEEBA - Educação e Contemporaneidade

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, educational institutions worldwide have had to immediately ... more In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, educational institutions worldwide have had to immediately pivot to online distance learning and teaching. While institutions with a grounding in open, distance and flexible learning have done reasonably well in the circumstances, the majority of institutions have struggled with this sudden move away from their conventional campus-based operations. Examples of the few successful adoption and implementation of online learning and teaching are however, boutique and small-scale operations in one program of study, one Department or Faculty. Clearly missing from this scenario are examples of large scale and institution-wide adoption of open, online, distance and flexible learning. This is a consequence of the limitations of existing operational infrastructure as well as mindsets. These are hard to change in the best of times, although they are long-term benefit and resilience against future disturbances of the sorts we are currently experiencing, the...

Research paper thumbnail of Technology-Enabled Environments for Flexible Learning: A Case Study at the University of the South Pacific

The introduction of technology-enhanced learning and teaching environments has been a challenge f... more The introduction of technology-enhanced learning and teaching environments has been a challenge for many educational institutions in terms of providing adequate, effective and efficient ICT tools to enrich the delivery of learning and teaching. Spread across 33 million square kilometers of Pacific Ocean, the University of the South Pacific (USP) encompasses 12 island nations, and thus, the transactional distance between students and teachers represents a multitude of challenges. To deal with these challenges, the University continuously strives to leverage ICT in education. In this paper, the authors describe the innovative approaches and ICT tools used by USP to deliver its courses across its 14 campuses so as to provide the best possible learning experiences to its over 29,000 students who maybe enrolled in any of the four modes of delivery: face-to-face, print, blended and online. The paper will also focus on the strategies, challenges and successes of various ICT tools used to e...

Research paper thumbnail of The Integration of Multimedia for Online and Blended Learning at the University of the South Pacific

The University of the South Pacific (USP) a regional university, established in 1968, serves twel... more The University of the South Pacific (USP) a regional university, established in 1968, serves twelve independent island nations of the South, Central and North Pacific. The University is moving towards providing more of its programmes and courses through flexible delivery using online and blended modes. As a result there has been a gradual increase in the integration of multimedia components such as audio, video, graphics, animations, and simulations as part of courseware or course packages. This increase in demand is anticipated to have further growth. This paper focuses on the current status on the different types of multimedia currently integrated in USP coursewares, and discusses the areas of multimedia that is anticipated to grow over the next few years at USP.

Research paper thumbnail of Open Educational Resources and Practices at the University of the South Pacific: Status Report and Future Directions

Research paper thumbnail of Blending media for flexible learning at a regional university

The University of the South Pacific (USP) a regional university, established in 1968, serves twel... more The University of the South Pacific (USP) a regional university, established in 1968, serves twelve independent island nations of the South, Central and North Pacific. The University is moving towards providing more of its programmes and courses through flexible delivery using online and blended modes. As a result there has been a gradual increase in the integration of multimedia components such as audio, video, graphics, animations, and simulations as part of courseware or course packages. This increase in demand is anticipated to have further growth. This paper focuses on the current status on the different types of multimedia currently integrated in USP coursewares, and discusses the areas of multimedia that is anticipated to grow over the next few years at USP.

Research paper thumbnail of Factors in the deployment of a learning management system at the University of the South Pacific

This paper describes how a new Learning Management System (LMS) was introduced into the Universit... more This paper describes how a new Learning Management System (LMS) was introduced into the University of the South Pacific with the aim of improving teaching and learning. The development process from test and selection of the platform through to project planning, gathering of political support within the institution, technical factors, the design and roll out of training, the impact and consequences, the growth and future prospects of the platform are discussed, with a focus on the university’s redesigned online law program. The paper concludes with the main lessons learned, emphasising the point that the process was characterised by a lack of a formal process or deployment model per se.

Research paper thumbnail of Access to ICT Infrastructure and Devices in the South Pacific

Tenth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning, Sep 1, 2022

Research paper thumbnail of Faculty open educational practices at a regional university

Open educational resources (OER), which are cost-free, openly licensed educational materials avai... more Open educational resources (OER), which are cost-free, openly licensed educational materials available in a variety of languages and formats, have in recent years accumulated abundant evidence of disruptive potential to surmount barriers to learning. This is certainly good news to the world of education, especially higher education, which has experienced steady growth in its cost to students. Evidence also shows, however, a low uptake of this concept in higher education. A key reason for this is a lack of awareness, understanding, and acceptance of OER and their related practices amongst faculty. If one intent of a higher educational institution, such as is that of the University of the South Pacific (USP), is to provide greater affordability for students through OER, ushering faculty towards OER is thus paramount, for they are the ones who normally choose and assign educational resources. As an initial step toward moving the USP closer to its aspirations, a survey study was underta...

Research paper thumbnail of The final countdown 3, 2, 1 … zero: Launching towards a university wide implementation of an ePortfolio system

In today’s digital age educators and governments around the globe are rightfully demanding for mo... more In today’s digital age educators and governments around the globe are rightfully demanding for more reflective practice and social activity in education. Research has shown that, ePortfolios promote reflection (Batson & Chen 2008; Stefani, Mason & Pegler 2007) and social activity (Gerbic & Maher 2008; Zeichner & Wray 2001) in teaching and learning. ePortfolios are shared, reflected and provides a means for students to be mobile and lifelong learners and the types depend of their multiple purposes. In light of these possibilities, ePortfolios has gained major traction in high schools and universities and are becoming increasingly “viable institutional instructional technology to facilitate student learning” (Dordelly-Rosales 2010, p.12). ePortfolio is therefore a promising technology for any educational institution that aspires to meet the demands of educators and governments in today’s very dynamic learning and teaching environment.

Research paper thumbnail of Recalibrating Institutional Choreographies for future-focused learning and teaching

Revista da FAEEBA - Educação e Contemporaneidade

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, educational institutions worldwide have had to immediately ... more In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, educational institutions worldwide have had to immediately pivot to online distance learning and teaching. While institutions with a grounding in open, distance and flexible learning have done reasonably well in the circumstances, the majority of institutions have struggled with this sudden move away from their conventional campus-based operations. Examples of the few successful adoption and implementation of online learning and teaching are however, boutique and small-scale operations in one program of study, one Department or Faculty. Clearly missing from this scenario are examples of large scale and institution-wide adoption of open, online, distance and flexible learning. This is a consequence of the limitations of existing operational infrastructure as well as mindsets. These are hard to change in the best of times, although they are long-term benefit and resilience against future disturbances of the sorts we are currently experiencing, the...