Investigating digital video applications in distance learning

The paper gives a brief overview of the use of digital video in distance education, the background to The Open University's Digital Video Applications (DiVA) Project, the contexts in which the Digital Video Library system is being used and some evaluation findings. Through DiVA, the university is investigating how it can use its video assets effectively, to support reuse of existing materials in course production. The project team is also evaluating student use of the system. The paper reports on an observation study which revealed several usability issues and stakeholders' opinions about potential uses of the DiVA system. This is followed by findings from an evaluation of student use of the system at a residential school and its use as part of an online learning activity undertaken by students accessing the system remotely. Evaluation findings to date indicate some quality and workload issues but they also show opportunities that come to light when using the DiVA system.     

School Admissions: Increasing Equity, Accountability and Transparency

This paper examines the impact of education reforms on school admissions policies and practices. It discusses the changes that are needed to improve the current system, especially in areas where the market is highly developed. It is concluded that the new legislation to be enacted by the current Labour Government should be beneficial, but that more far-reaching changes are needed for the admissions process to be equitable, transparent and accountable.     

Business and Higher Education Partner to Develop a High‐Skilled Workforce: A Case Study

The workforce development literature contains little scholarly work on how organizations in a community work together to develop a high‐skilled workforce. This exploratory case study examined business and higher education partnerships that were instrumental in creating such an educational infrastructure for information technology in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The findings from this case study provide insight into the chronology of key events and the leaders' characteristics and their interactions. Tulsa's IT workforce‐development infrastructure was negotiated one partnership at a time, bridging diverse interests, until a workforce‐development system emerged. The infrastructure grew as the result of accident, purposeful activity, serendipity, and negotiated processes and structures. The leaders' differing motivations and energy, their history of collaboration and mutual trust, and their different perspectives influenced the information technology workforce development infrastructure that developed. The insights into inter‐organization processes that resulted from the study can contribute to theory building in human performance technology and to our understanding of how to address gaps between desired and actual workforce performance at a community level.     

Book Review

Book reviewed in this article: Whose Muse?: Art Museums And The Public Trust: James Cuno, ed. Vastly More Than Bricks And Mortar: Reinventing The Fogg Art Museum In The 1920s: Kathryn Brush.     

Assuring Quality Distance Learning Programmes: the Emergence of a New Faculty

To assure quality in distance learning programmes, a new type of university teacher must emerge. He or she must be energized and challenged by meeting the needs of expanding categories of learners who are coping with new definitions of a semester, utilizing alternative methods for gaining access to and sharing information, incorporating emerging technologies into teaching and learning processes, and adapting to an increased focus upon student performance. To reach these goals, university teachers must be provided with the necessary training, instructional assistance, and incentives to develop basic changes in their behaviour for which few models exist and little experience has been realized. This article outlines seven characteristics of a university teacher who is ready to meet the challenges that a distance learning network provides.     

Quality Childcare and Joint Attention

This study examined the experiences of infants and toddlers in New Zealand child care centres to evaluate whether they provided opportunities for learning in the context of shared attention. One hundred childcare centres througough New Zealand comprised the centre sample. Running records were carried out on 200 under 2‐year‐old children (99 boys and 101 girls, two children from each centre) for 20 minutes each. Two hundred and thirty six episodes of sustained joint attention were observed during running records, most commonly during object/toy related play, but also at a relatively high level during caregiving routines, book/picture related activities, messy creative activities and large motor play. A third of all children in the study participated in no joint attention episodes at all. Just over half (51.3%) of episodes were child‐initiated and just under half were adult‐initiated. Centres with no joint attention episodes scored significantly lower on the Assessment Profile Infant Score and centres with smaller group sizes and some Diploma level trained staff had more episodes of joint attention. Qualitative data provided evidence of staff sensitivity and responsiveness, close relationships between staff and children, reciprocity between staff and child, the central importance of language and shared meaning and the richness of joint attention episodes as a context for learning.