HEPCIT 2004 Showcase
HEPCIT (Higher Education Partnerships in Communication and Information Technology) provides a forum
for discussion about the use of technology in teaching and learning, open to all Monash University staff.
http://www.monash.edu.au/groups/hepcit/index.html
Crossing New Learning Frontiers
(New cultures, New strategies, New standards)
Tuesday, November 16
C1 Lecture theatre, Clayton campus
Time
Presentation
Speaker
Session chair
8.45 am – 9.00 am
Official opening
Prof. Alan Lindsay,
Deputy Vice Chancellor
Office of DVC (Academic)
Introduced by
Debbi Weaver, Cochair, HEPCIT
9.00 am – 10.00 am
Keynote speaker
Prof. Denise Kirkpatrick,
Director for Learning and
Teaching, CeLTS
Towards an
Understanding of
Online Collaboration
10.00 am – 10.40 am
Session 1:
Suzy Edwards (Education)
Online Role-Play
Margaret Bearman (Medicine)
10.40 am – 11.00 am
Session 1 discussion
2 speakers + session chair
11.00 am – 11.30 am
Morning tea
11.30 am – 12.30 pm
Session 2:
Sharon Pickering (Arts)
Online Collaboration
Len Webster (Law)
Paul Trahair
Ainslie Ellis
Geoff Romeo (Education)
12.30 pm – 1.00 pm
Session 2 discussion
1.00 pm – 1.45 pm
Lunch
1.45 pm – 2.25 pm
Session 3:
Glenn Doolan (Nursing)
Internationalisation
Jeff Wrathall (BusEco)
2.25 pm – 2.45 pm
Session 3 discussion
2 speakers + session chair
2.45 pm – 2.50 pm
Stand & stretch break
2.50 pm – 4.00 pm
Panel presentation –
Val Clifford (HEDU)
The Off-Shore
Perspective
Yoni Ryan (CeLTS)
3 speakers + session chair
Christine Walker
Panel introduced
by Debbi Weaver
Kaya Prpic (Faculty IT)
Sheelagh Walton (Faculty IT,
Monash South Africa
4.00 pm – 4.15 pm
Presentation of
HEPCIT Award
4.15 pm
Close
Denise Kirkpatrick
Introduced by
Debbi Weaver
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Keynote speaker: Denise Kirkpatrick
Topic: Towards an understanding of online collaboration
The e-environment has promised solutions to some of the challenges facing university teachers
and learners. It has the potential to support learning activities and interactions that have
previously been difficult, inconvenient or costly. Online learning activities can provide
environments in which students interact with each other and their teachers, with rich contexts and
in ways and at times that are convenient to learners. While much online learning still seems to be
little more than replication of the face-to-face experience there are a growing number of examples
of creative activities that engage students and staff.
I will discuss several examples where online learning has been support learning across distributed
locations in collaborative ways. One of these, Mekong e-Sim involved teachers collaboratively
developing and running an online role-play with students from different disciplines, in different
universities working collaboratively. While successful, this project was not without its challenges
and I will examine these and our responses to them. I will also highlight some of the key design
elements to encourage real collaboration rather than simply ‘working on the same task’.
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Session 1: Online Role Play
Suzy Edwards
Faculty of Education, Monash University,
Topic: Higher Education in the twenty-first century: examining the interface between graduate
attributes, online and problem based learning at Monash University.
Three major developments have served to influence the nature of Higher Education during the
21st century, including the change from an industrial to knowledge economy, the development
and use of computer mediated communications such as online learning and new understandings
in theoretical conceptions of teaching and learning. The convergence of these developments has
resulted in the situation whereby institutes of Higher Education are required to produce graduates
with the skills necessary for participation in a knowledge-based economy whilst also providing
their students with flexible and student-centered learning opportunities in order to remain relevant
to the industries and communities they serve.
The opportunities afforded by new learning technologies have been invested with much
responsibility for assisting institutes of Higher Education to meet the learning needs of their
graduates in a flexible and student centered way. However, the extent to which the technology is
driving the pedagogy requires consideration, particularly in light of the policy and planning
documentation institutes may hold with respect to the teaching and learning enacted within a
given university.
This paper examines Monash University’s response to these demands at an institutional level as
articulated by various policy and planning documents. A case example of a unit of study
developed and delivered within the Bachelor of Education and Bachelor of Early Childhood
Studies in the Faculty of Education during semester 2, 2003 is presented in order to examine how
an interface between Problem Based Learning (PBL) and online learning can be utilized in order
to meet graduate outcomes in a pedagogically appropriate manner.
Session 1: Online Role-Play
Margaret Bearman, Laura Dean, Tom Denison and George Wilson,
Monash Institute of Health Services Research, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
Topic: WebCT and Creating Web Development Teams
On-line role-play offers the possibility of a different kind of scenario-based learning, in particular
permitting students to work anonymously and 'in character'. In first semester 2004, we ran a
seven-week online assessment for 15 role-play groups, mediated by WebCT within the
combination postgraduate-undergraduate subject IMS5023 Information Enterprise Management
and Marketing.
Each group contained between 8 and 12 active participants and each was assigned a role in one
of two similar scenarios. The first role-play was set in a large high school and the second in a
medium sized book retailer. In both instances students 'became' members of Committees. In each
instance the Committee's tasks was to:
 Debate the nature of the organisations' web presence
 Determine the composition of a web development team, based on earlier discussions
 Create position descriptions and job advertisements appropriate to the selected team.
In both Committees, the roles had a variety of different opinions on what was the correct model for
the organisation.
We chose to use WebCT in a structured way in an attempt to reduce the amount of time that
many students spend on online role-play activities. Each week students were given readings,
interactions and a diary to complete. The interactions, which mostly took place within the
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discussion forums, were very task-specific and reflected activities that 'real' Committees might
undertake. The diaries gave students the opportunity to reflect on the differences between what
they would choose to do and what their characters were doing. While a formal evaluation is on
going, initial feedback from students is positive. IMS5023 has a mix of both off-campus and oncampus students, and the role-play appeared to have the biggest positive impact on the former.
This development is part of a larger Strategic Innovations Fund (SIF) funded project. This project
is developing a reusable role-play learning object, based within a WebCT template. For those who
are interested in the preliminary outline of such a learning object, please visit the 'Integrated
Approaches' section in the Designing Electronic Learning and Teaching Approaches (DELTA) at
http://www.its.monash.edu.au/staff/web/webct/delta/index.php ('online anonymous role-play'
example).
Session 2: Online Collaboration
Dr. Sharon Pickering, School of Political and Social Inquiry,
Dept Criminal Justice & Criminology, Faculty of Arts
Topic: International collaboration in criminal justice.
This paper outlines the use of WebCT in a collaborative assessment project between an
Australian and two US universities. Informed by global trends, criminal justice practitioners
increasingly move through different jurisdictions and cultural contexts. We wanted to work with
students and have students work with each other in ways that prepared them to operate in
international surroundings in relation to international law and the transnationalisation of criminal
justice agencies. The Global Project required students to engage in a series of online activities
with the aim of fostering online and international co-operation between students. Moreover, as
students were studying globalisation and criminal justice, it was designed to engage students in
the processes and experiences of globalisation. The use of online learning technologies in
fostering the internationalisation of curriculum and developing alternative group learning strategies
has offered a series of challenges which require critical reflection on the ways we globalise
learning.
Session 2: Online Collaboration
Dr Len Webster and Ms Joanna Becker,
Faculty of Law, Monash University
Topic: Dimensions of collaboration in an online professional practice program
An online professional practice program has been developed in collaboration between the Faculty
of Law at Monash University, the Law Faculty at Griffith University and the national law firm Minter
Ellison. This program provides professional legal accreditation training to law firm staff across
multiple jurisdictions within Australia.
Collaboration in five key areas has been critical to the ongoing success of this program including
collaboration between the:
 Students completing individual Units
 Academic staff and the Educational developers designing the Units
 Institutions involved in the program.
A specially designed on-line learning environment called LEX was developed in the Faculty of
Law at Monash University to maximise the process of collaboration and this presentation will
include a demonstration of the ways in which LEX supports the various forms of collaboration.
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Session 2: Online Collaboration
Dr Geoff Romeo
Faculty of Education, Monash University
Topic: Developing effective online teaching and learning environments for education students
This presentation describes the organization and structure of three teacher education units, and
my attempts to use the Monash online environment to foster Collaboration.
The first, EDF4701, is a non-award unit that caters for students who are undertaking an extended
fieldwork placement, usually in an educational setting. Typically the setting is a primary school, a
secondary school or a special school. The unit must cater for a diverse cohort of students who
generally require an individual program with flexible start dates. For example, Kinda Pashwar is a
teacher who has overseas qualification but cannot get teacher registration in Australia until she
completes a further 20 days of supervised fieldwork in an Australian school. Ami, Jane, and Rosie
are student teachers from the University of Northern Iowa (UNI), as part of UNIs international
program students can do an 8-week out-of state or an international teaching round in their final
year. Through UNIs connection with the Faculty of Education at Monash, the placements for Ami,
Jane and Rosie can be facilitated. They are enrolled in EDF4701, supported online (before they
arrive and while they do their placement) and, face to face seminars, usually at the school, are
arranged. Similar arrangements are in place with other North American and European
universities. This unit use WebCT (CE) and InterLearn.
The second unit, EDF4214, is an elective, off campus unit that is entirely online. I share the
responsibility for teaching this unit with Michael Dyson from Gippsland. Students receive a hard
copy of the unit guide; the rest is available through WebCT (CE). Features of this unit include the
use of Camtasia video for demonstration of computing concepts and the use of InterLearn for
learning journals. One of the important aspects of developing this unit has been the collaboration
with Michael and the iterative process of development.
The third unit, EDF2105, is an on-campus unit. Again I share the responsibility for teaching this
unit with others – David Zyngier and Glenn Russell. Features include the use of WebCT (Vista),
InterLearn, and discussion groups. This unit also features Camtasia video.
Session 3: Internationalisation
Glenn Doolan
Assistant Head (Gippsland Campus) School of Nursing
The School of Nursing has been quite successful in conducting the Bachelor of Nursing (Post
Registration) in Australia, Hong Kong, and Singapore for over a decade and in Malaysia and
Papua New Guinea these last five years, through Off-Campus Distributed Learning (OCDL). It
also conducts the Master of Nursing in Australia, Hong Kong and Malaysia through OCDL. The
BN(PR) program was awarded Global Online Learning Development (GOLD) status three years
ago. One of the Masters units attracted GOLD status as an elective for the MBA program.
This presentation is intended to convey some of the highlights, the difficulties and lessons learnt
in translating the materials to GOLD status and attempting to augment what was already seen as
a leading Distance Education course at that time. In particular Glenn will talk about problems
encountered in using discussion groups, quizzes, student expectations, using WebCT as an aid to
critical thinking, and system problems related to training and workload issues.
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Session 3: Internationalisation
Jeff Wrathall,
Department of Management, Faculty of Business and Economics
Topic: Issues Associated with the Provision of Management Training and Education Designed in
the West for Delivery in the People’s Republic of China
Over recent decades, there has been a substantial increase in the demand for Western-style
management training and education in China. However, despite overwhelming levels of demand,
Western universities have experienced significant problems in the delivery of these programs. As
the Chinese market becomes more sophisticated and more challenging, problems related to both
program content and program delivery continue to emerge.
There is an extensive body of research that suggests that management training and education
programs, delivered in cross-cultural settings, need to explicitly address cultural differences and
other differences related to that country’s economic ideology and business environment. With
regard to Western-style management training and education delivered in high context, transitional
economies such as China, cultural differences are also associated with differences in
communication and interpersonal styles, as well as differences in cognitive and learning styles.
Furthermore, the transitional nature of the economy and the dynamic interaction between culture
and economic ideology leads to a range of differences in management values, and business and
management practices.
However, this study argues that the situation is complicated by two moderating variables. Firstly,
the extent to which the real impact of national culture is indeed significant, particularly in terms of
management values and management practices, and hence, the extent to which culture’s
influence needs to be seriously considered, depends critically on the extent to which national
cultures are converging, diverging or cross-verging. While there is considerable research to
support the localisation of management training and education programs designed in the West,
for delivery in China, the possibility of either cultural convergence or cross-vergence moderates
the extent to which localisation can be regarded as an optimal solution. Secondly, a number other
factors are likely to also impact on decisions about alternative design strategies. Of particular
importance in this regard are the management education philosophies and objectives of Western
universities involved in the design of management training and education programs for delivery in
the Chinese market, as well as the espoused and actual market needs.
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