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The July 2003 edition of ultiBASE is now online at http://ultibase.rmit.edu.au/Journal/journal.htm.

Please remember that ultiBASE is a peer-reviewed journal and is always interested in receiving papers on any topic of interest related to teaching and learning in the post-secondary education sector.

Abstracts

The eChange Project: Supporting a Faculty of Education's Move to Authentic Use of Information and Communication Technologies through Mentoring by Sandy Schuck, Faculty of Education, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia.
http://ultibase.rmit.edu.au/Articles/july03/schuck1.htm

ABSTRACT:
It is becoming increasingly apparent that there is a need for higher education institutions to support their staff in the development of course offerings that are either online or have Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) integrated in meaningful and effective ways in them (Burbules & Callister 2000, Franklin & Peat 2001). Consequently, the Faculty of Education at the University of Technology, Sydney embarked on a professional development project, the eChange Project, in 2000 which has continued 2001-2003. It has the goals of supporting academic staff in developing pedagogically appropriate online components in their subjects. The project is underpinned by change management principles as suggested by Scott (1999), Brown (1999), and confirmed by Trowler and Cooper (2002). eChange agents were appointed from within the faculty to implement the project. Factors such as managerial support, the development of good working relationships between the agents and the academic staff, and the opportunities for staff to consider and discuss problematic issues raised by the introduction of online learning, have contributed to the successes of the project. Time constraints, cynicism about the value of using ICT to enhance teaching and learning, staff and student satisfaction with current methods of teaching, and access and equity issues have been barriers to uptake for some of the faculty staff.

The paper reports on some of the strategies used in the eChange Project and discusses the challenges of the project to date. A mentoring framework (Kram, 1983) is used to locate faculty responses to the professional development project. Anecdotal evidence in the form of comments to the eChange agents, interviews with selected staff, and responses on evaluation sheets offers insights into the perceptions of the staff about the project and the relative merits of the different strategies that were used.

ABSTRACT:
Reflective practice as one of key capabilities for professional practice is emphasized in today’s higher education. Application of the concept of reflective practice to research supervision is a very challenging task. The aim of the study is two-fold:  to explore ways of incorporating reflective practice into the supervisory process, and to identify issues relating to the reflective practice in undertaking research and research supervision. This study draws upon empirical and theoretical evidence from the existing literature and case studies of research project students engaged in personal reflection in research, compounded with the author’s own experience of reflective practice.

Mark Laidler
mark.laidler@rmit.edu.au