For decades through the twentieth century, the promise of the technological revolution in higher education has been a case of cyclical hype and counter-hype. Since the early inception of television and the claims that this would revolutionise education, personal computers and now the Internet have also been the cause of much excitement, many overstated claims, and significant disenchantment. The last 15 years or so have seen significant investment in both financial and human resources in developing e-learning systems and capability, often with the same levels of disenchantment and disinterest. Institutions have moved from highly-dependent home-built systems, to more user-friendly centralised systems. In New Zealand that move has also seen a number of false starts and widely-varying levels of success and uptake. At AUT University, this uptake is now at the stage where every paper automatically has an online component, where every online shell is required to have a minimum level of documentation, and where approximately 80% of all staff and students are active users of the online system.
At the risk of being accused of over-hyping these claims, this paper suggests that AUT has passed a critical point in the acceptance and uptake of technologies for learning and teaching. Our students expect it, our academic staff now accept that it is part of the landscape, our allied staff are increasing playing their part in maintaining it, and our Executive are starting to see it as a critical, non-negotiable part of how the university engages its students. But most importantly, the system has developed as a collaborative effort between IT Services and Academic Development. There are four critical factors in a successful e-learning implementation (no implied order of priority intended) – User-friendly for both staff (e.g. course building, marking, etc) and students (access, navigation, participation) Pedagogically sound application Stability and performance Able to grow and change as technologies, usage and expectations change (e.g. social networking, mobile connectivity, virtual worlds, etc) Factor 1 is a property of the LMS begin used and the way it is configured. AUT has been using Blackboard Academic Suite since 2001, chosen at the time for its relatively simple interface and usability. Factor 2 is supported by the Academic Development unit (now called the Centre for Learning and Teaching) – AUT has four senior non-teaching academic staff designated as Flexible Learning Advisers, each responsible for a major Faculty. Factor 3 is the domain of the IT Services staff, responsible for hardware and network infrastructure, as well as production level software maintenance and upgrades Factor 4 is a collaborative responsibility of all stakeholders, mainly driven by the Centre for Learning and Teaching and IT Services, but with input from key academic staff. This is a key area that relies on the efforts and enthusiasms of those who push the boundaries and keep an eye on environmental changes. Examples of successful transition to blended learning As the online learning system (branded as AUTonline) has grown in uptake, so has it grown in functionality. The following are some examples of course developments that have made good use of the whole learning environment. 1. Te Reo courses in Te Ara Poutama (Maori Studies faculty). These courses have been completely redesigned to move from audio-cassette tape to enhanced podcasts (mp4) and online voice interaction exercises. The podcasts have been developed to include optional English or Maori text and some full video as well, produced by Te Ara Poutama’s own post-graduate multimedia students (see http://www.apple.com/au/education/profiles/autuniversity/index.html for a video case study). The online voice exercises are possible with the Wimba Voice Tools, a third-party additional tool set used within AUTonline. The Wimba server is a virtual server maintained by IT Services, with full integration with our Blackboard servers.