University of Wollongong and University of South Australia:
Preliminary Observations on Learning Management Systems and Libraries
Based on November 2005 Site Visits
Christine Turner, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Australia and its Tertiary Education System
 Country about the size of continental U.S. with a population of 20 million (compared with 295
million)
 About 40 degree granting universities. See Australia Education Network for listings and rankings
- http://www.australian-universities.com/.
 “College” refers to vocational or preparatory institution.
 Universities get substantial funding from federal government which works in consort with state
and territory governments to authorize universities. See Australian Government Department of
Education, Science and Training - http://www.dest.gov.au/sectors/higher_education/default.htm
(Higher education sector).
 State/territory governments responsible for university governance; federal government,
“Canberra”, produces frameworks and mandates audits, e.g. Copyright Australia Ltd. (“CAL”),
Quality Assurance Framework, Research Quality Framework, and allocates funding on the basis
of assessment of framework criteria.
 Australian and New Zealand Information Literacy Framework and Australian and New Zealand
Institute for Information Literacy (ANZIIL – http://www.anziil.org) inform university policy and
information literacy curricular practices.
 2001 Copyright Act Statute covers digital materials in educational environment. Educational
institutions can offer 10% or one chapter of book or article to students without requesting
permissions. Copyright Australia Ltd. (C.A.L.) administers statute and license agreements.
Licenses granted to institutions with fees determined by size and quantity of digital resources
offered. Licenses account for $18million from university sector. C.A.L. audits university every 23 years to ensure compliance and set fee.
 Education Network Australia “EdNA” - http://www.edna.edu.au/ - designed to support and
provide resources for online education, funded by “Canberra” and state/territory governments.
 Students have restricted access to the greater Internet, outside campus network. Each student has
a quota. Implications for use of Google as research tool?
University of Wollongong – http://www.uow.edu.au
 About 21,000 students at 8 campuses, mostly Sydney and south coast, one in Dubai.
 University of Wollongong Graduate Attributes http://www.uow.edu.au/about/teaching/attributes/ - #7 “A basic understanding of information
literacy and specific skills in acquiring, organising and presenting information, particularly
through computer-based activity.”
 Pre-requisite online tutorial, ILIP, for all entering students administered by Student Services,
content produced by librarians. When students have completed tutorial with assessments
successfully, they no longer have access to content.
 Adopted WebCT CE in 1999; now converting about 850 courses from WebCT CE to VISTA.
Librarians involved in product review; two librarians involved in conversion.
 WebCT/VISTA used in “blended” environment; no undergraduate programs are taught entirely
online and very few graduate degree courses are. About 40% of subjects (courses) are taught
using LMS to some degree. Some concern that availability of lecture notes, class content in LMS
provides disincentive for students to attend class.
Boston College, December 13th, 2005
1








VISTA template for Readings and Library Resources includes: E-readings
(http://library.uow.edu.au/search/r), Catalogue, Databases, Resources by Faculty
(http://www.library.uow.edu.au/eresources/), Teach Yourself
(http://www.library.uow.edu.au/helptraining/tutorials/), Ask Your Librarian
(http://www.library.uow.edu.au/helptraining/askus.html), What’s New
Library has Copyright Officer. Academics (faculty) must submit readings through the Library.
Articles and book chapters are scanned and saved as PDF files. Brief MARC records are created
for them, housed in catalog, with links to PDF files on server in Information Technology Services
(ITS). All items must be suppressed after one year period, though they can be activated again for
next year. No longer any print article or book chapter reserves, though there are some books. Last
year converted contents of “Books of Readings” or coursepacks to e-readings.
Links to e-reading records in MilCirc (III catalog) from course in learning management system
are constructed by ITS, a standard query string with a unique item number.
Research Edge, stand alone, generic online tutorial revamped last year in collaboration between
librarians and faculty/learning developer. Piece of this on evaluating information is linked from
subject in Wollongong University College curricula.
Subject specific course integration of information literacy building tasks and assessment is result
of Faculty Librarian collaboration with Course Coordinator and Academic, e.g.:
o Chris Brewer has worked with Nursing Academics (faculty) to include sequence, with
assessment, on citing resources and styles within module of VISTA subject Midwifery
and Population Health. She sees new nursing students within first few weeks of their first
year to introduce them to CINAHL and demonstrate a model search strategy. Support
documents and presentation are included in LMS.
o Annette Meldrum’s work with Informatics Academic to integrate information literacy
skills into Information Technology and Citizens’ Rights, a compulsory subject, was cited
as Good Practice Case Study for University.
o Elizabeth White, Faculty Librarian for Law, is involved in three weeks, two hours/week,
of compulsory first year subject, Legal Research & Writing. See supporting tutorial at
http://www.library.uow.edu.au/helptraining/tutorials/legal/index.html. Tutorial was
formerly part of WebCT, but Elizabeth and Academic found students were so focused on
assessment that they didn’t learn content thoroughly. Now, just quizzes are in WebCT,
and students do them apart from class time.
Many LMS subject sites have links to library produced subject or assignment guides, e.g.:
o Health & Behavioral Sciences, Arts, and Engineering subjects link to “Disasters” –
http://www.library.uow.edu/eresources/subjects/hbs/hbsdisaster.html
o Science/Human Geography links to “Refugees” page –
http://www.library.uow.edu.au/eresources/subjects/sci/scigeo142.html
o H&BS subjects link to “Statistics” page http://www.library.uow.edu.au/helptraining/guides/findstats.html
EXCELLENT Information Literacy segment of library’s web site http://www.library.uow.edu.au/about/elearning/infolit/index.html with links to tutorials, subject
guides, curriculum examples, current projects, etc.
Library is part of Academic Services Division, as are Learning Design and Learning
Development. Together they are collaborating more and more with each other and Academics
through faculty service agreements and project to map tertiary literacies across Faculties (schools
and/or divisions).
University of South Australia (Adelaide) – http://www.unisa.edu.au
 About 30,000 students at 5 campuses with significant “remote” population. Five to six thousand
students are “off-shore” and 49% of students come from Equity Groups Boston College, December 13th, 2005
2














http://www.unisa.edu.au/flc/staffsvcs/Equity/equity-definitions.asp. Historically a leader in
distance education in Australia.
Four Academic Divisions: Business; Arts and Social Sciences; Information Technology,
Engineering and the Environment; and Health Sciences. Each Division has a team of Academic
Service Librarians that work with it. This team approach is new this year.
UniSA was first among universities to articulate Graduate Qualities http://www.unisa.edu.au/etd/gradqual.asp. Second quality addresses information literacy under
lifelong learning.
1998 UniSA developed its own learning management system based on priorities of
interoperability, scalability and functionality/features: UniSANet http://www.unisa.edu.au/unisanet. Version 2 released in 2001.
Library databases are not integrated at this point as source of data for each course and program,
though federated search (ENCompass) offers possibilities. E-readings managed by Library are
part of course pages.
UniSANet has many templates but the pre-sets allow for flexibility. Academic Librarians choose
to use these in different ways, some populating them extensively with content and learning
objects which they can turn on and off, others working with common elements across programs.
Library and Flexible Learning Center in same administrative portfolio. Academic Librarians work
with FLC/Learning Connection - http://www.unisa.edu.au/learningconnection/ - professional
developers, online advisors, career advisors, study advisors. FLC/Learning Connection negotiates
service agreements with Deans based on program needs. FLC works with Library within service
agreements. Requests for librarian collaboration also come directly from Academics.
Academics generally grasp concepts of information literacy, but need help with creating
assignments which are appropriate to students’ learning development.
Online tutorials generally complement face-to-face classes, but cannot assume librarians will see
student face-to-face when creating them. Commitment to flexible delivery – online,
print/correspondence, face-to-face – with same level of service provided to on and off-campus
students.
Academic Librarians link to a stand alone tutorial InfoGate http://www.unisa.edu.au/infogate/index.htm - or elements of it, from UniSANet subject page.
May use links to subject guides - http://www.unisa.edu.au/resources/subject/default.asp - from
UniSANet.
Business core course “Communication & the Media” has module in UniSANet for “Writing the
First Essay” – http://www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/learn/UniSAnet-3b/?PATH=/Resources/10701workshop/Writing+the+first+essay/&default=Introduction.htm – which uses progressive skillbuilding and video on how to search.
Also many “Need Help With Your Assignment?” guides for specific subjects, e.g.
http://www.unisa.edu.au/resources/VL/eass/assignments.asp.
Released first version of Student Portal in January, 2005; second version under development. My
Services tab of portal has option for My Resources/My Library which includes borrowing,
catalogue, reserves, federated search. Uses active directory and single sign-on.
Also evaluating learning object institutional repository and e-research repository.
Boston College, December 13th, 2005
3