Over the past decade, most Australian universities have moved increasingly towards “blended” and online course delivery for both undergraduate and graduate programs. In almost all cases, elements of online teaching are part of routine teaching loads. Yet detailed and accurate workload data associated with “e‐teaching” are not readily available. A search of the international literature indicated that there is limited rigorous literature and research that points to the actual effects on workload in online and blended higher education teaching environments. This paper reports on a research project in four Australian universities, and the perceptions of a representative group of staff who perceived that e‐teaching had increased their “teaching time” workload, and that Workload Allocation Models (WAMs) did not take account of contemporary teaching modalities.

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This study was designed to evaluate a program of professional development for RNs working in mental health settings. The development of skills in reflective practice and peer consultation was fostered by encouraging nurses to explore critical incidents from their practice experience within a small group environment. The aim of the program was to improve the knowledge and skills of the participants, enhance the work environment and improve work performance. The effectiveness of the program was evaluated using a quasi-experimental pretest, posttest design. The participants demonstrated improvements in their empathic responses to patients, their sense of hope, and some aspects of their work performance and perceptions of the work environment. The implications of the findings for practice and research are outlined.

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