Collaborative schemes and the ethos of distance education: A study of Australian and New Zealand universities

Although the economic benefits of collaborative schemes and transfer of courses in distance education are clear, examples of collaboration between distance education institutions are rare. A reason is sought in theorganisational climate or ethos of each institution engaged in distance education, which inhibits joint design and use of courses or the transfer of a course from one institution to another. This theme is examined in relation to distance education in the integrated mode system of Australian and New Zealand universities, six in all. The universities are compared in terms of six features of organisational climate of particular relevance to distance education: physical characteristics, academic organisation, involvement in distance teaching, organisation of distance teaching, components of distance teaching and staff attitudes to distance education. It is concluded that the considerable variation between institutions, with respect to these features, creates difficulties for collaboration. The best prospect for collaborative schemes in distance education therefore may have to lie in the use of national or international agencies to validate courses as part of a national or international higher education programme along the lines of Britain's CNAA.     

"小组讨论"在远程开放教育中的作用

小组讨论是目前被广泛使用的一种教学形式.在远程开放教育中,小组讨论的作用主要体现在五个方面能有效改变学生的学习态度,使学生在知识获取时实现从"间接环境"向"直接环境"的过渡,帮助学生解释不同媒介信息形态,产生有价值的"议程设置",体现合作学习理念.同时,小组讨论在具体操作中仍存在一些问题,如不能激发所有学生的积极性,教师的广泛引导和评价难以展开,在时间安排上有很大的随意性等.     

Steering from a distance: Power relations in Australian higher education

Conventional liberal frameworks – in which power is seen asthe property of states, and repressive in character, and market and stateexclude each other – are unable to comprehend the recent changes inliberal government, including the government of systems and institutions inhigher education. Neo-liberal government rests on self-managing institutionsand individuals, in which free agents are empowered to act on their ownbehalf but are steered from a distance by policy norms and rules of thegame. In the universities government-created markets and quasi-markets havebeen used to advance both devolution and central control, simultaneously,and national government and institutional management are increasinglyimplicated in each other. These issues are explored in relation to recenthigher education literature, and empirically, the latter by examining thechanges in the Australian higher education system in the last decade. TheAustralian system provides an example of a quasi-market in which thedevelopment of a stronger institutional management, the introduction ofgovernment-institution negotiations over educational profiles, and the newsystems of competitive bidding, performance management and qualityassessment have all been used to steer academic work and to install aprocess of continuous self-transformation along modern neo-liberal lines.Following a change of government in 1996 there has been some movement from aquasi-market to a more fully developed economic market, but no relaxation ofgovernment control.     

当代远程教育主流模式比较研究

多种教学媒体支持的自主学习模式与课堂教学远程传播模式是当代远程教育两大主流模式。对两种教育模式的形成环境、基本特征、理论基础、教育手段、成本结构、适用范围等方面进行较为系统的比较研究,为我国远程教育的改革与发展提供较为完整的参照系。     

Australian higher education third party arrangements: an independent institute case study

Tertiary Education and Management - The marked increase in transnational higher education third party arrangements in recent years represents globalizing forms of education. Third party...     

Building social capital in early childhood education and care: an Australian study

Mounting research evidence demonstrates that effective ‘early childhood education and care’ (ECEC) has short‐term and longer‐term social and educational benefits for children and families. An allied body of evidence attests to the contribution of social capital (i.e. social networks and relationships based on trust) to such benefits. The research reported in this article bridges these two bodies of evidence by researching the social capital of children, their families and community members in the context of a state‐wide initiative (in Queensland, Australia) of integrated early childhood and family hubs. Drawn conceptually from the sociology of childhood, a methodological feature of the research is a broadened focus on children, not just adults, as reliable informants of their own everyday experience in ECEC. Some 138 children (aged 4–8 years) in urban and rural/remote localities in Queensland participated in research conversations about their social experience in and beyond ECEC. Children's social capital was found to be higher in the urban community than in the rural community, highlighting the potential of child and family hubs to strengthen children's social capital in those communities with few social facilities.     

A framework for management of distance education

Distance Education: The Foundations of Effective Practice. John R. Verduin, Jr. and Thomas A. Clark. (San Francisco: Jossey‐Bass, 1991, 279 pp., $31.95).     

网格教育:现代远程教育的新浪潮

网格是继传统Internet、Web之后的新的网络技术,被称之为第三代互联网.传统的网络教育已无法适应信息社会对教育提出的挑战与要求,而基于网格技术的网格教育能够克服当前网络教育的局限.本文分析了网格的特点、网格教育的创新,预言网格教育必将掀起现代远程教育的新浪潮.     

现代远程教育项目的可行性研究

现代远程教育已成为与传统的以面授为主的普通教育并行发展的一种新型的教育模式 ,在我国实施现代远程教育项目有着极其重要的意义及必要性。根据我国现有的资源情况并从经济效益出发 ,应建立现代远程教育模式和远程教育资源环境。为发展我国的现代远程教育项目 ,应进行现代远程教育项目的经济分析、财务可行性分析、管理可行性分析     

国外现代远程开放教育教学模式刍议

了解和研究国外远程开放教育教学模式的特点及适用背景条件,对我国远程开放教育教学模式的改革具有重要的借鉴作用和现实意义。     

从活动理论看远程教育中小组学习活动的设计

兴起于20世纪20年代的活动理论是理解情境脉络中活动的有用框架,分析活动理论对远程教育小组学习活动的设计具有很强的指导作用.本文在对远程教育中小组学习活动的涵义、特点和优势分析的基础上,提出在活动理论指导下,远程教育小组学习活动的设计方法,以期促进远程小组学习效果的提高.     

Teaching practices that re-engage early school leavers in further education: an Australian study

Re-engaging young adults who have ‘dropped out’ of school is an important and challenging task for educators. The purpose of this study was to explore the teaching practices that encourage young people to re-engage in further learning. Through interviews with teachers and students, the study identified five major interrelated teaching strategies that were effective in re-engaging young adults in education. These strategies were: strong concern for student welfare; positive teacher–student relationships; relevant course content; a mastery-based approach to learning; and an overarching goal of building students’ confidence in their ability, and more generally, in themselves. Together, these strategies address the behavioural, emotional and cognitive components of student engagement.     

Disciplinary cultures in an Australian college of advanced education

Recently scholars have called for more detailed historical study of the teaching lives of academics across countries, systems and institutions. This article contributes to the research on the professoriate in its widest sense. The article focuses on the disciplinary perspectives and cultures of academic staff employed in one of Australia’s oldest colleges of advanced education during the period 1965–1982. It examines official beliefs, slogans, and truisms, which formed part of these perspectives. Disciplinary perspectives include the academics’ views of the subject, the important problems for the subject, and the criteria of utility of the subject. Australia’s Commonwealth Advisory Committee on Advanced Education saw colleges of advanced education compared to universities enrolling students with different interests, stressing part‐time studies, concentrating on applied courses rather than humanities, being closely attuned to the labour market and workforce needs and being principally teaching institutions. They were to be equal but different to universities, but came to be viewed as equal but cheaper. A crucial issue is the extent to which the disciplinary perspectives of college of advanced education academics matched those that the legislators envisaged.     

A synthesis of evaluations of distance education courses

Distance education courses are offered in a wide variety of formats. A range of media is available, and mechanisms for and levels of study and administrative support vary widely between courses. When new courses are established there is a wealth of experience to draw upon but little, if any, guidance on how to choose between the plethora of potential course formats. This article suggests that synthesising guidelines from evaluations of a selection of courses can help in drawing conclusions as to how courses are best formatted for given situations. As a case study, seven Hong Kong distance education courses with a variety of features were evaluated. Conclusions were synthesized—about the provision of tutorials, group activities, inter-student contact, telephone counselling and the use of video and television broadcasting—which could not have been reached from either evaluating one course alone or by examining existing literature.     

现代远程教育是推进我国高等教育大众化的有效途径

以最新信息技术为依托的现代远程教育是我国高等教育体系中的重要组成部分。本文通过对现代远程教育的优势分析,结合我国的成功实践,认为,现代远程教育是推进我国高等教育大众化的有效途径。