Australian Distance Education Research Articles

‘So you can make it fast or make it up’: K–12 teachers’ perspectives on technology’s affordances and constraints when supporting distance education learning

This paper examined Australian distance education teachers’ perspectives about how they drew on technological tools to support their primary and secondary students’ learning. Via two focus groups (n = 9, n = 7), teachers identified that technology greatly assisted them in relation to developing relationships with students and families, creating interactive lessons, differentiating learning, providing quality feedback, and connecting peers. However, they also reported experiencing ongoing challenges and constraints related to gaining technology expertise, overcoming technology faults, and coping with additional accountability. Data made it clear that teacher use of technology was driven by specific student needs and that teachers drew heavily on both core pedagogical knowledge and technological pedagogical content knowledge. Findings suggest the need for more distance education specific professional development to ensure that teachers have the knowledges needed to support diverse learners in this context.

“Brave Young Singers”: children's poetry-writing and 1930s Australian distance education

Purpose– There has been virtually no explication of poetry-writing pedagogy in historical accounts of Australian distance education during the 1930s. The purpose of this paper is to satisfy this gap in scholarship.Design/methodology/approach– The paper concerns a particular episode in the cultural history of education; an episode upon which print media of the 1930s sheds a distinctive light. The paper therefore draws extensively on 1930s press reports to: contextualise the key educational debates and prime-movers inspiring verse-writing pedagogy in Australian education, particularly distance education, in order to; concentrate specific attention on the creation and popular reception ofBrave Young Singers(1938), the first and only anthology of children's poetry written entirely by students of the correspondence classes of Western Australia.Findings– Published under the auspices of the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) with funds originating from the Carnegie Corporation, two men in particular proved crucial to the development and culmination ofBrave Young Singers. As the end result of a longitudinal study conducted by James Albert Miles with the particular support of Frank Tate, the publication attracted acclaim as a research document promoting ACER's success in educational research investigating the “experiment” of poetry-writing instruction through correspondence schooling.Originality/value– The paper pays due critical attention to a previously overlooked anthology of Australian children's poetry while simultaneously presenting an original account of the emergence and implementation of verse-writing instruction within the Australian correspondence class curriculum of the 1930s.

Strategies To Improve Retention Of Postgraduate Business Students In Distance Education Courses: An Australian Case

In spite of the clear value of postgraduate business students to many providers of distance education courses, the factors affecting the retention of these students have received limited attention in the literature. In addressing this gap, this paper presents the findings of a qualitative study into the factors affecting the retention of postgraduate business students at a major Australian distance education university. The findings of this study suggest that a range of situational, dispositional and attitudinal factors impact upon student retention on this context, both as enablers of and obstacles to ongoing participation. In many cases, these factors differ to those identified in the existing literature on student retention. Based on these findings, we present a range of strategies designed to improve the retention of postgraduate business students by maximising enabling factors and minimising the impact of any identified obstacles. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research are also presented.

Reshaping distance and online education around a national university in regional Australia

A recent independent review of Australian higher education has made a series of recommendations that the government has largely accepted and that have the potential to alter dramatically that country's university system. In combination, some of the consequences of the review have significant implications for regional education, particularly new criteria for the designation ‘university’, the removal of a cap on student numbers, and targets for participation both generally and for students from disadvantaged groups, including those from regional and remote areas. In response, two universities have proposed the establishment of a new, merged institution to be based in regional Australia but with a national mission, which would necessarily have a significant – and possibly unique – distance education mission. A scoping study for this institution has been funded by the government and initial consultations have been held. These developments come at a fortuitous moment in the history of Australian distance education, a field that, while strong in practice, has lost some sense of its own identity as a result of a general movement in Australia's dual‐mode university system from distance education for some to flexible delivery for all. De facto leadership of much of the discussion surrounding online delivery has been assumed by information technologists and online enthusiasts who do not necessarily understand the milieu of the distance student. The position taken in this paper is that the developments proposed afford an opportunity for the distance education community to focus its energies under a new mandate and with a more specific student base. There are, however, significant challenges to which both the present system and distance educators in particular will have to respond. One of these relates to the role of online delivery within the university sector, and particularly for such a national university in the context of an existing diverse and dispersed approach to distance delivery in higher education across the country. It may be the case that the developments outlined herein have some resonance in distance education communities beyond Australia. While this is beyond the paper's present concerns, it seems unlikely that, for example, the issues of identity mentioned above constitute a distinctly Australian phenomenon. These issues will be explored within the paper.

Retention and progression of postgraduate business students: an Australian perspective

This paper presents the findings of an exploratory case study that investigated factors affecting the retention and progression of postgraduate business students at a major Australian distance education university. The majority of prior research addressing student retention focuses on undergraduate on‐campus students, while this research investigated the postgraduate distance education context. The findings of this research indicate that a range of factors, in many cases different to those identified in the student retention literature, impact upon retention and progression in this context. This paper concludes with implications for distance education providers and recommendations for further research.

From Dual-mode to Flexible Delivery; Paradoxical Transitions in Australian Open and Distance Education

Distance education has been a fundamental element of Australian education from early in the 20th century. The prevailing practice in higher education has been to have dual-mode organizations. This has led to some paradoxes unfolding in the recent history of Australian distance education that are grounded in the history and politics of the development of educational institutions and systems. Dual-mode institutions developed in Australia only partly because they suited the geographical and demographic circumstances of a new and developing nation. Rather, distance education often was added as a means of supporting the viability of small, on-campus institutions that had been established for party political expediency in favored rural towns. Attempts by governments in recent years to “rationalize” distance education provision have produced a paradoxical position where “distance education” and “dual-mode” are less frequently used terms, and yet the practices and systems embedded in both terms have flourished under the guise of “flexible delivery.” “Flexible delivery” brings with it some new connotations and practices that reflect the domination of economic rationalist ideologies.

Educational and institutional flexibility of Australian educational software

PurposeThis paper aims to provide context for papers in this special issue on Australasian e‐learning. The paper aims to examine the background to Australian flexible and transnational education and to evaluate the educational and intuitional flexibility of three typical products of the Australian educational software industry.Design/methodology/approachThe history of Australian distance education is summarised and drivers for flexible education are presented. A model of flexible educational software is introduced with three dimensions: educational, institutional and support/training. Three educational software products are informally reviewed using this model to establish that the current generation of Australian educational software offers significant educational and institutional flexibility.FindingsThe three examples of Australian educational software rate highly in both educational and institutional flexibility and also offer excellent support.Research limitations/implicationsThe existence of hot spots of educational technology innovation in relatively isolated areas such as Perth and Tasmania warrants further investigation.Practical implicationsThe Australian educational software industry produces extremely flexible products with excellent support that are worthy of consideration by international customers. Policy makers in Australia are alerted that current policies in ICT off shoring and the Australian Research Quality Framework (equivalent to the British Research Assessment Exercise) may threaten this industry, which contributes to sizable exports in transnational education.Originality/valueThe paper brings the flexible nature of Australian educational software to light for an international audience.

The reorganisation of Australian distance education: some comments

(1991). The reorganisation of Australian distance education: some comments. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning: Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 52-55.

On‐campus requirements in remote area Australian distance education

On‐campus requirements in remote area Australian distance education

AARNet and Australian tertiary distance education

The eight federally designated Australian Distance Education Centres are members of a new national communication network called AARNet. To achieve reduced telecommunication costs and additional educational benefits through the use of AARNet for all students, including disadvantaged groups, requires institutions to work together on providing more multi‐point access and central services and to make a local commitment to networking technology.

The use of computers in the instructional process in Australian distance education

Much that has been written on the use of CAL in distance education has originated from the U.K.'s Open University. This paper surveys the use of CAL in distance education in Australia where the distance education system is based on multi-institutional dual mode system. The Australian scene is described and some tentative conclusions drawn.

Recent commissioned reports on tertiary distance education in Australia: context and critique

Within one year there appeared nine major reports or evaluation studies on Australian distance education — all commissioned by the Australian federal government's former statutory authority advising on tertiary education. The political context in which these studies were initiated is considered first. Then each of the commissioned evaluation studies is examined in turn and finally there is an overall assessment of the likely impact of the reports.

Course teams and instructional design in Australian distance education: a reply to Shaw and Taylor

Course teams and instructional design in Australian distance education: a reply to Shaw and Taylor

A study of an Australian distance education pressure group

This paper examines the development, role, nature and function of a non‐tertiary distance education pressure group in Australia. It describes the activities of the School of the Air Parents and Citizens' Association (P & C) in Carnarvon, Western Australia. It assesses the distance education perspective the parents have; reviews their relationships with the Carnarvon teaching staff and the head office administrators of the Education Department; and indicates the nature, extent and effectiveness of State and Federal parliamentary lobbying. In. particular, it details the alignment of the P & C with the national Isolated Children's Parents' Association and what it has meant in terms of P & C influence and lobbying strategies.