Cost‐effective support for university students learning via the Web?

Academics and other knowledge-owners are creating millions of Webpages that students can use. Universities are teaching more students off-campus because the costs of on-campus provision cannot be met. Offering courses via the Web seems an attractive alternative. Academics (and students) want the courses to be high quality. Yet quality is often lacking. À course outline gets approval, then aims, objectives and content change rapidly during the teaching. Students' and tutors' inputs are seldom monitored. Students join conferences only to discover that few classmates participate actively and the tutors' advice is hard to get. Web courses risk acquiring a poor reputation

Reviews

Seels, Barbara B. and Richey, Rita C, Instructional Technology: The Definition and Domains of the Field, Washington DC, Association for Educational Communications and Technology, 1994. ISBN 0–89240–072–2

Globalisation, Education and Distance Education [Prepared for the International Research Foundation, Cambridge, and the Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver, Canada]

The purpose of this paper, prepared for the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), is to support an informed dialogue on international, regional, national and institutional policy on globalisation and education, by looking particularly at crossborder distance education and training, which to date operates almost entirely at the post-secondary level. The paper is based on a desk study of the published literature and Web documentation. It identifies the key issues facing policy makers and sets out policy questions in the context of current negotiations regarding the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS

Cost-effective support for university students learning via the Web?

Academics and other knowledge-owners are creating millions of Webpages that students can use. Universities are teaching more students off-campus because the costs of on-campus provision cannot be met. Offering courses via the Web seems an attractive alternative. Academics (and students) want the courses to be high quality. Yet quality is often lacking. À course outline gets approval, then aims, objectives and content change rapidly during the teaching. Students' and tutors' inputs are seldom monitored. Students join conferences only to discover that few classmates participate actively and the tutors' advice is hard to get. Web courses risk acquiring a poor reputation

Editorial for proceedings papers:ALT-C 2012 Conference Proceedings - A confrontation with reality

Hawkridge, D., Verjans, S., & Wilson, G. (Eds.) (2012). A confrontation with reality - Proceedings of the 19th Association for Learning Technology Conference (ALT-C 2012). September, 11-14, 2012, Manchester, UK.Conference proceedings. Also published as Supplement to Research in Learning Technology, 20. doi:10.3402/rlt.v20i0.1920

Le tecnologie didattiche oggi [Educational technology now]

Che cosa si definisce col termine tecnologie didattiche? Le tecnologie didattiche dovrebbero essere considerate una concezione sociale, che cambia man mano che la si mette in discussione. Sono tuttora in uso definizioni che risalgono alla fine degli anni sessanta e molti esperti nel settore restano saldamente ancorati a teorie e prassi datate. E’ venuto il momento di aggiornarle. [Discussion of the concept of educational technology, considered a social concept that changes as you put it into question, and the need to update definitions from the late sixties.

Thriving in a colder and more challenging climate

Hawkridge, D., Ng, K., & Verjans, S. (Eds.) (2011). Thriving in a colder and more challenging climate. The 18th annual conference of the Association for Learning Technology (ALT-C 2011). September, 6-8, 2011, University of Leeds, England, UK. URI:http://repository.alt.ac.uk/2159Here are the proceedings of the 2011 ALT Conference ‘‘Thriving in a colder and more challenging climate’’. Proceedings papers report on a piece of research, possibly in its early stages, or they can be ‘‘thoughtpieces’’ which state a point of view or summarise an area of work, perhaps giving new insights. The conference has six themes: . Research and rigour: creating, marshalling and making effective use of evidence . Making things happen: systematic design, planning and implementation . Broad tents and strange bedfellows: collaborating, scavenging and sharing to increase value . At the sharp end: enabling organisations and their managers to solve business, pedagogic and technical challenges . Teachers of the future: understanding and influencing the future role and practices of teachers . Preparing for a thaw: looking ahead to a time beyond the disruptive discontinuities of the next few years. Interestingly, there were very few proposals for the conference as a whole against the sixth theme: and no proceedings papers. Perhaps the thaw is still perceived as being too far away to warrant any preparation yet!Association for learning technolog