ultiBASE In-Site, June 1997

ISSN 1328-1798

In the Articles section Alma Whiteley, Chair of International Human Resources in the Graduate School of Business at Curtin University of Technology has contributed The PATOP Model for developing managers' critical thinking/questioning skills. This article introduces a critical thinking model for looking at Human Resource Management and workplace practices. In the words of the author, 'The PATOP model is a working model in the sense that it was produced for, and in, a management education setting. Most of all, the PATOP model is about challenging mindsets'.

Margaret Kiley, from the Advisory Centre for University Education at The University of Adelaide, provides a searching and informed account entitled Learning first hand: Some early lessons from an experiment using the World Wide Web for academic staff development. She describes the creation of a new WWW site by the three South Australian universities. From her vantage point as a member of the project team, Margaret Kiley states:

The underlying philosophy was that if academic staff were able to experience their own professional development through flexible delivery then they might consider the possibilities of working with their own students in similar ways.

The result was SATURN (South Australian Three Universities Resource Network). Visiting SATURN is easy using links from the ultiBASE article.

Our interview this month is with Gary Hough, Director of Teaching Quality in the Faculty of the Constructed Environment at RMIT . In 1994, RMIT began an Educational Quality Assurance (EQA) program across the University. In Pockets of good practice, Gary Hough reflects on his experience as a DoTQ working with course teams to develop and support good teaching practice.

James O'Donnell, Professor of Classical Studies and Vice Provost for Information Systems and Computing at the University of Pennsylvania, will delight both classicists and medievalists with his annotated selection of Websites for his contribution to Choice Clicks this month. Hotlinks are also provided to his own eclectic page and to his selection of additional historical sites.

The Resources section features an innovation entitled Working Knowledge. This section presents honest assessments of teaching and learning resources by people who have used them. Staff as well as students are invited to contribute. Two videos are featured this month. Other updates in Resources include:

• The contents pages of six teaching and learning journals:
  • Innovative Higher Education
  • Educational Media International
  • College Teaching
  • Teaching Sociology
  • Innovations in Education and Training International
  • Quality In Higher Education
• Many New Books related broadly to teaching and learning have been listed for June.
• The list of Electronic Journals, with direct links to their WWW sites, has increased.
• Our Faculty Forum has been restructured and updated.
• New sites with descriptions and links have been added to Internet Teaching and Learning Sites.

Our popular Events section has been systematically updated as usual. Thank you to all those who sent us information about forthcoming events.

Are you going to AusWeb in July? Diane Baird will be representing ultiBASE and is happy to meet you to talk about your innovative projects for publication on our site. Email Diane to plan a meeting amongst the throng.

All potential contributors to ultiBASE are invited to visit our Publishing section for details on how and what to contribute. Knowing what contibutions are 'in the pipeline' helps us to plan our publishing program.

The ultiBASE Search Engine has been running for two months now. It will search the Articles, Workshop, Choice Clicks and Resources areas of ultiBASE. Your feedback on its performance will help us to improve your search results by refining our programs.

Thank you to all those who completed the ultiBASE survey last month. We will include a brief report of our findings in the next ultiBASE In-Site.

Welcome to all the new 'subscribers' to ultiBASE In-Site following our recent mailout of paper leaflets. In June 1996 our email message describing two new articles, one new resource and various regular updates was bravely sent to our complete list of twenty supporters. Our list now comprises over six hundred names worldwide!

Regards from Wendy Pryor.