Project Description


This project has focused over a period of time on the creation of a discursive learning environment for postgraduate students studying an Open and Distance Education Specialism in the Masters in Professional Education and Training Program at Deakin University. Online conferencing will be an integral part of the program in 2000, with students studying online in seven units throughout semesters 1 and 2. All have First Class conferences established for electronic discussion of ongoing tasks and activities with the aim of engaging students in learning interactively. A constructivist approach to learning underpins the development of this environment. Use of electronic conferences provides students with a means of understanding:

  1. the potential of computer conferencing in teaching and learning as a dynamic environment for sharing ideas and constructing knowledge
  2. the asynchronous, text-based nature of interacting through computer conferencing
  3. the way this influences the way they write, reflect, communicate and learn.
Through participation in the CUTSD project, evaluation of these outcomes would be facilitated through the mentoring process.


Project Participant: Elizabeth Stacey [Deakin University]
Mentor: Mary Rice