Toward new models of flexible education to enhance quality in Australian higher education (original) (raw)
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Total Quality Management Of Distance Education, 2010
This chapter presents an overview of the management of quality for flexible, online and distance education (off-campus education) at Deakin University in Australia. In 1974, Deakin University was established as a dual-mode institution educating large numbers of both on- and off-campus students. From its foundation it has increasingly sought to provide the same learning resources, equivalent learning experiences and parity of outcomes to students studying in all modes (Hay, Lowe, Gibb & Anderson, 2002). While this was the ideal on which Deakin was founded, in practice approaches differed across various schools and courses where in some areas integration was achieved through an open-campus model, while in others the tendency was towards separation of the modes of delivery by course. Deakin’s history can be characterised as moving from dual-mode approaches to educating its student cohorts, to a now well articulated, integrated and institution-wide approach to assuring and improving the quality of all modes of educational delivery for an extremely diverse and complex set of student cohorts. In this regard, it makes no particular distinction between these student groups in its policies, procedures and processes relating to educational matters. The move to such an all-encompassing approach to it quality practices can be seen in the context of four fundamental forces in the University’s historical development: • First, the growth of the University from a one-campus regional operation to a multi-campus/multi-city organisation underpinned by a unitary merger model and shaped by national government policy interventions which demanded larger scale operations. • Second, the explosive growth of information and communications technologies (ICT) throughout the 1990s and the new millennium of relevance and value to all student cohorts both on- and off-campus. • Third, the increasing diversity and spread of student cohorts studying on-campus, cross-campus, nationally and through partners internationally, much of which is driven by the University’s need to generate student fee income directly and all of which needs to be carefully managed to ensure quality learning opportunities and outcomes. Over time there has been a proportionately larger number of school-leaver, on-campus students studying across Deakin’s major teaching campuses compared with off-campus undergraduate and postgraduate student enrolments. • A growing recognition that a common set of attributes of excellent teaching and student-centred learning approaches could be enacted which would benefit the education of all students, and that the newer technologies could allow students enrolled in different modes of delivery to interact as one community of learners in mutually beneficial ways. These four forces have reshaped the University’s strategic commitments to on-campus, online, flexible and distance education, along with associated approaches to quality practices. Before presenting the details of Deakin’s strategic and operational responses to quality we provide some background information on quality in higher education, Deakin’s historical development and some aspects of the Australian national higher education environment which form the context that influences Deakin’s operations.
The effectiveness of the flexible provision of higher education in Australia
2001
This paper reports on an investigation of the effectiveness of models of flexible provision of higher education in Australia. The study was commissioned by the Australian Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs. In this study flexible provision is defined in terms of providing choice for learners because this is expressed or implied by educational providers in using the adjective ‘flexible’. The methodological challenge faced in this study was how to address hard-edged research questions in the context of a variety understandings of key terms, the individuality of the approaches taken by providers, and a want of agreed measures of effectiveness. In response the investigation employed case studies researched and described around a set framework of topics and evaluated against criteria for flexibility, effectiveness and cost effectiveness. A summary of each case was depicted graphically. The depictions – referred to as ‘depictograms’ – provided a means to readily compare t...
The lived experience of flexible education: theory, policy and practice
2012
The range of rationales that underpin conceptions of flexible education, and the re-making over time of the official meaning of flexibility in national education policy, have led to the point where flexibility might be found, or be required, in nearly every aspect of Australian higher education. This paper seeks to identify those rationales and the development of public policy rhetoric that have framed the development of the meaning of flexible education over time in an Australian context.
Introducing Flexibility into Educational Programs: The Macquarie University Experience
1998
The Macquarie University (Australia) vision is to provide flexible learning options for all students. This will involve the dual development of resource-based curricula and information technology (IT) capacity across the university. This paper highlights major issues underpinning the design, development, and delivery of flexible learning and how these relate to the Macquarie context. An IT-based developmental model that accommodates curriculum redesign and the wider institutional changes needed to ensure the delivery of high-quality flexible learning is introduced. The model has the following characteristics: recognizes that flexible learning is underpinned by resource-based curriculum design; recognizes that the World Wide Web is pivotal in coordinating and managing flexible learning programs; recognizes that a variety of other media will also be used, depending on the teaching context; emphasizes the active involvement of participants in design, development, implementation, evaluation, and maintenance of resources and programs; accommodates the need to develop institutional capacity to support flexible learning; recognizes that institutional capacity requires coordination at all operational levels; and provides a practical context within which to develop, evaluate, and refine products, supporting policies, strategies, and technical, administrative, and managerial structures. A table outlines the three stages of the model (developmental, partial flexibility, full flexibility) as they relate to usage, access, resources, and strategic issues. (Author/DLS)
Flexible Pedagogy, Flexible Practice (Notes From the Trenches of Distance Education)
Journal of Learning for Development, 2016
In the introduction, Burge states the overarching question underlying the book's purpose: "flexible learning is a canonical concept, much discussed and valued as an inherently "good" goal, but just how challenging is it on the rough terrain of practice? (p. 5)". She provides multiple reasons for this volume. First, she notes that in recent years, flexibility in distance learning practice has not been a significant research focus, creating a niche for contemporary analysis. She identifies the second reason as the quick evolution of digital technologies that bring both new possibilities and new assumptions for flexible learning delivery. The third reason is to understand how government policies and economic pressures shape institutional teaching and learning decisions.
Engineering flexible teaching and learning in engineering education
European journal of engineering education, 2001
The key challenges for achieving flexibility in flexible mode programmes in engineering and technology include: the integration of the explicit and implicit content in potentially disparate and isolated study modules across the whole programme curriculum; ensuring the validity and consistency of policies for granting students advanced standing based on recognition for prior learning and workplace experience; developing learning materials and experiences that cater for a wide and diverse audience, while at the same time offering relevance to the individual student in their own context; creating innovative communication environments that bring remote students into both the directed and the discursive discussion that are an important part of the learning process; and the financial and resourcing sustainability of the development, maintenance and delivery of high quality flexible mode engineering and technology study programmes.
ICT and the effectiveness of flexible provision of higher education in Australia
2002
This paper reports on an investigation of the effectiveness of models of flexible provision of higher education in Australia. The study grew out of a concern about the effectiveness of flexible provision initiatives in affording study choices to students, particularly those in non-metropolitan regions of Australia. The ten cases of flexible provision chosen for close investigation were ones that provide higher education programs for students in non-metropolitan regions of Australia. The research questions were framed as:
Comput Appl Eng Educ, 2009
Flexible delivery of education is the starting point for discussion in this paper. The elearning history of the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) was used to contextualise the paper. USQOnline was mentioned next. The paper then describes the Distance and e-Learning Centre (DeC) in USQ. It then focused on the innovative delivery of USQ engineering degree programs, where the course flexibility was then highlighted together with their innovative residential schools and future remote access laboratories at USQ; an example of a remotely accessible laboratory was also mentioned.
Flexible Learning: The Complementary Dimension In Future Education
Journal of Maltese Education Research, 2004
Introduction: The Challenges of the Digital Era 'Higher education is adapting to one of the most challenging developments in its history: the emergence of a society that is global, networked and in which knowledge is the main economic driving force. This development is at the same time the result of and is facilitated by Information and Communication Technology. Higher education institutions are challenged to integrate these technologies into their core processes and organisation, and to develop strategies for effectively educating their students in this new social context.' (Van der Wende & Van de Ven, 2004). Within this new social context, Maltese Educational and Training Institutions are facing challenges along various dimensions. These challenges call for vision, strategy and action. There is a growing mismatch between the static forms of our educational