Australian Remote Education Tutors and Universities: Proposed Innovative Partnerships for Credentialling Adult Supervisors of School Students Enrolled in Distance Education (original) (raw)

Defying distance, ameliorating access: school education for remote Australian students

2020

In Australia, rural and remote schools are known for their innovation in providing education throughout remote locations, with students accessing distance education since the early 1900’s. Distance education in Australia involves students learning in a different location to their teacher, using a combination of ‘asynchronous’ and ‘synchronous’ learning using advanced ICT products that enable them to interact. This paper provides an overview of these schools in New South Wales, an education jurisdiction that has adapted distance education schools to meet the diverse needs of students. This includes the inclusion of a distance education school for gifted students, and “Access Networks” where students attend their local high school, and groups of schools share teachers using co-timetabled subjects and technology to communicate. These schools highlight that education for students in geographically remote locations is not only possible, but provides many benefits for students, when we ac...

Remote Education Systems Policy Briefing

2013

The Remote Education Systems project is identifying how education can improve outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in and from remote communities, while increasing opportunities for engagement in the economies that exist in remote contexts. This briefing provides a snapshot of results so far from the last two years of research. Data from existing quantitative datasets (myschool, Census and school-level data) have been analysed, and we have conducted community surveys, focus groups and interviews with input from over 200 remote education stakeholders: teachers, leaders, community members, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander educators, policymakers, senior departmental bureaucrats and others working in and for the Government, independent and Catholic school sectors. Further, we recommend strategies to improve education outcomes, based on our findings to date.

Strategies for Remote Education Systems: Achieving better outcomes for remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Students Final report for the Remote Education Systems Project

The Remote Education Systems (RES) research was one of a number of projects that operated within the Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation. The project commenced in July 2011 and completed in June 2016. The aim of the project was to find out how remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities can get the best benefit from the teaching and learning happening in and out of schools. The project was set against a background of many failed attempts to improve outcomes for students in remote communities. Among the many problems the research was designed to address were: low retention rates through to Year 12, high rates of teacher turnover, and inadequate preservice teacher preparation for remote contexts. The purpose of this report is three-fold. First, it sets out what was achieved by the RES project and how. Second it critically reflects on impact. Third, based on the findings, it sets forth strategies for improvement. These strategies are not quick fixes. However, on the basis of the evidence, they will result in positive changes in remote education.

Towards a good education in very remote Australia: Is it just a case of moving the desks around?

"The education system, as it relates to very remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Australia, faces considerable challenges. While considerable resources have been applied to very remote schools, results in terms of enrolments, attendance and learning outcomes have changed little, despite the effort applied. The Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation (CRC-REP) in its Remote Education Systems (RES) project is trying to understand why this might be the case and also attempting to identify local solutions to the ‘problem’ of very remote education. The RES project is in the process of building its research program across five remote sites in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia. As the project begins, the researchers involved have begun to consider what the assumptions behind the ‘system’ in its current form(s), are. The paper begins with an outline of the context of remote education in Australia within a rapidly changing global environment. However, the purpose of the paper is to outline many of the assumptions built into remote education and to ask what the alternatives to these assumptions might be. The authors go on to imagine a different education system in remote communities where ‘success’ is measured and achieved in terms of the community’s imagined future for its children and young people. There are of course risks associated with trying new things, but ultimately given the apparent failure of remote education—measured by its own indicators of success—the authors ask ‘what have we got to lose?’. Note: An updated version of this paper is currently in press. Ask the author details."

Tutoring in Distance Education: New Proposals, Challenges and Reflections

2015

Distance Education has expanded in the world, due to the democratization of knowledge mediated by technologies for accessing different levels of education. Online and classroom tutoring systems have been a source of research and discussion on redefining roles in distance education. It's understood that the role of the tutor must be intrinsically linked to the political-pedagogical project of the course, regardless of their nature: graduation, specialization, etc. The mentoring held in the fifth Specialization Course in Distance and Continuing Education (University of Brasilia, Brazil) had its assumptions and guidelines, grounded in the CTAR-Community Work and Learning Network, which advocates a proactive tutoring, with engaging and emancipatory character, valuing collaborative knowledge construction. It was essential to ensure the basic and continuing training of selected tutors to favor the formation of networks in the realization of the activities and actions that promote lear...

Remote Education Systems Project Update No. 8

2016

Over the last five years the Remote Education Systems (RES) project sought to find out how remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities can get the best benefit from the teaching and learning happening in and out of schools. It is doing this by engaging with members of communities, schools, government agencies and other end users who want to find ways of improving outcomes for students in remote Australia. Over the five years we engaged directly with more than 1250 remote education stakeholders across the country. The project is now completed. Previous project updates can be found on the Remote Education Systems pages of the CRC-REP website. In this final project update, we briefly reflect on findings and achievements.

New Tools for Old Hands: E-Portfolios for Career and Professional Development in Remote Education Workforces

2011

Increasingly, federal government policy has dominated the way public education agencies perform and execute their responsibilities. This has been most acutely felt in the Northern Territory (NT). Under the Quality Teaching Package and Enhancing Literacy measures of the Closing the Gap in the Northern Territory National Partnership Agreement, the Australian Government ha s committed $44.3 million over three years (2009/10 to 2011/12) to Northern Territory education providers to develop career pathways for Indigenous 1 staff, increase the number of Indigenous staff with education qualifications and provide support and pr ograms to enable teachers and students achieve improved outcomes in literacy and numeracy in 73 targeted remote communities. By presenting the outcomes-to-date of a suite of projects conducted with the Northern Territory Department of Education and Training over 2010, this paper describes and demonstrates the potentially significant role that ePortfolios can play in t...

REFLECTION Non-government distance education funding: the need for equity in Australian schooling

Distance Education, 2012

This reflection outlines the problems associated with the Australian Govern-ment's recurrent funding policy for non-government distance education. It demonstrates the policy's inconsistencies with stated government educational policy 10 and with commonly held expectations of fairness in a democratic society. A comparison of the current funding of non-government distance education to various long-standing educational delivery modes demonstrates that non-government distance education is yet to be appropriately funded by the Commonwealth. The discussion concludes by indicating that this emerging ped-15 agogy is distinct from traditional schooling, that its students ought to be given the same educational opportunities as other Australian school students, and that the current policy ought to be redressed expeditiously.

Enhancing Training Advantage for Remote Learners

For some time Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have been readily participating in VET certificate programs, above rates for non-Indigenous Australians (albeit at lower levels of attainment than non-Indigenous Australians). Relatively high participation rates are not however translating into higher levels of employment. Successive Closing The Gap reports point to a widening gap in employment participation, particularly in remote areas. This suggests that the role of VET certificate courses in improving employability of participants is problematic. Compounding the problem of transition to employment is the problem of attrition. In remote parts of Australia, attrition rates for VET courses are very high, for example Certificate I courses have attrition rates of more than 90 per cent. It would appear that on the whole, participants are not getting what is needed from their courses and they are dropping out as a result. However, this is not the case for all courses. To address these concerns a research project titled 'Enhancing Training Advantage for Remote Learners' funded by NCVER, is examining what makes programs more successful. The project, auspiced by Ninti One Limited with research partners from around Australia, will be conducting five case studies on successful programs in a variety of remote Australian contexts to determine what factors make them work well to achieve better retention and employability for participants. This paper and presentation will report on initial findings of the five case studies. It will also present an analysis of quantitative data from VOCSTATS and the five programs to illustrate the kinds of achievements that are possible in an efficient, and effective VET program for remote learners. Some formative implications from the findings will also be discussed.