Dream-Catcher in ICT: Creating a Web of Collaboration
Marcia Johnson, Bronwen Cowie
University of Waikato, New Zealand
In New Zealand the tertiary sector is experiencing a number of challenges to current teaching and learning practice through the increased diversity of the student body, issues relating to student retention and completion, and student satisfaction with learning opportunities. This presentation will describe a newly funded, two-year project to determine how different lecturers/groups are exploiting the potential of ICT/eLearning to support student learning. Using an activity theory framework, it has the overall goal of documenting, developing, and disseminating effective and innovative practice in the use of tertiary level ICT/eLearning to contribute to a research culture that informs practice and a culture of practice that uses research evidence – a major conference theme. The project has been designed to facilitate collaboration between practitioners and researchers in four case studies, based in different disciplines, with students from varying levels of study and from diverse backgrounds and learning experiences. There is one major guiding research question – how are different lecturers/groups exploiting the potential of ICT/e-learning to support tertiary-level student learning?The first year case studies include a pre-degree bridging programme for indigenous students, two separate undergraduate degree programmes in Earth Sciences and Finance, and a post-graduate degree course in Education. Qualitative and quantitative data are being collected from students through key informant interviews, focus group discussions, a common online student survey, and other online surveys. Data will be analysed paying particular attention to key pedagogical and practice features, such as the major tools used by lecturers and students’ perceptions of the impact of instructional technology on their learning, affect, and attitude. Preliminary findings from three of the four case studies will be reported at the conference.Findings will be used to discern and distil pedagogical practices to support and build eLearning capacity during the second year of the project. It is anticipated that research findings from both years will be used to leverage pedagogical change, close participatory gaps for students and lecturers, and develop a cross-university, educational research culture that informs practice.no references included