No abstract

The project work presented in this paper is funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) January-December 1999. Our task has been to identify effective communicative practices for different technologies, in relation to the contexts in which they occur, and to feed back information about such practices to the educational community in a context-sensitive way. The technologies at issue are: video conferencing (one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many); text-based communication (email, bulletin boards, conferencing,) and audio conferencing (telephone tutoring, shared workspace plus audio link). The teaching and learning sites that agreed to take part in this research project provide courses to a variety of learners-undergraduate, postgraduate, professional, full-and part-time-in a spread of subject disciplines. The breadth and range of learning environments represented should maximize the chances of teachers in further and higher education recognizing issues and circumstances that are similar to their own and provide a rich comparative framework. The lecturers from the various teaching sites are regarded as collaborators in this research, identifying their own issues and learning needs, and providing feedback to authenticate the interpretative process. This study approach bridges the practice-theory gap. We have completed the field work and are midway through analysing and interpreting the data in collaboration with teachers and students involved in the study. This will lead to the production of a flexible resource for individual lecturing staff which can also underpin staff development courses in good practice within networked learning environments. Further details and progress updates can be gleaned from our project web site at http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/tls/ JISC/index.html.

The increase in student numbers in further and higher education over the last decade has been dramatic, placing greater pressures on academic staff in terms of contact hours. At the same time public funding of universities has decreased. Furthermore, the current pace of technological innovation and change and the fact that there are fewer jobs for life with clear pathways for progression mean that more of us need to be engaged in learning throughout our lives in order to remain competitive in the job-market. That is the reality of lifelong learning. Students are consequently demanding (especially as they are having to meet more of the costs of education themselves) a more flexible learning framework. This framework should be able to accommodate all types of learners - part-time, mature, remote and disabled students. The revised Disability Discrimination Act, which came into force in October 1999, only temporarily excludes education from its remit and has already challenged university practices. (Another JlSC-funded initiative, Disability Information Systems in Higher Education, addresses just this issue: http://www.disinhe.ac.uk.) All this is set against a backdrop of the government's stated vision for a more inclusive, less elitist education system with opportunities for all, and the requirement for a professional and accountable community of university teachers

No abstract