The use of threshold concepts to define key points of curricula is a relatively recent development in educational research. Threshold concepts represent crucial stages of learning, the acquisition of which enables learners to progress from one level of achievement to another. In this context, the learner is described as passing through an…

The professional development of online teachers is now commonplace in higher education. Alongside the relatively straightforward decision to provide professional learning support for novice and experienced online educators within universities, decisions about the nature and content of such support are not always as clear cut. The study aimed to…

In the 21st century, also known as the digital era, higher education needs to face the changing technological contexts and to adopt pedagogies and tools for more engaging forms of learning. Despite much publicized enthusiasm about new media and its role in transforming learning in ways aligned with advances and contemporary socio-cultural…

Today, in a globalised, digital world, leadership challenges in the adoption and integration of emerging social software tools to support learning abound. Today's students, who have grown up in technology saturated environments, have never known a world without the internet, mobile phones, video on demand and personal computers. Leaders and…

This article outlines the design and development of a bespoke "Research Training Support Framework," targeting the professional development needs of higher degree research (HDR) supervisors and their students, which was achieved by implementing Patton's (2011; 2012) utilisation-focused evaluation methodology (UFE). The primary research…

Research findings in recent years provide compelling evidence of the importance of encouraging student control over the learning process as a whole. The socially based tools and technologies of the Web 2.0 movement are capable of supporting informal conversation, reflexive dialogue and collaborative content generation, enabling access to a wide…

A recent initiative by the Education Department of Western Australia is seeking to extend the use of telematics (audiographic teleconferencing) for delivery of educational services to gifted and talented students in rural and remote areas. The aim of the project is to extend and apply innovative approaches to teaching via audiographics, and to…

Scaffolding is a form of temporary support offered to a learning to assist in the process of becoming a skilled practitioner. Traditionally, the most common form of learning has been apprenticeship, where a novice learns through active participation in a task, initially only peripherally, and then assuming more control and ownership. Originating…

Describes the initial implementation and evaluation of an online environment designed to support a collaborative programming task among undergraduate students and provide them with experiential learning. Explains a holistic, context-based approach to evaluating the success of the innovation, together with the framework used for conducting the…

Traces the development of an online unit for Indigenous Australian learners, and accounts for cultural issues that impacted on the design of learning tasks and the associated avenues for communication provided to learners. In this context, culturally responsive design was ensured by the adoption of Lave's (1991) community of practice model. (AEF)

A study investigated the effectiveness of utilizing audiographic conferencing technology to provide enrichment programs for 30 gifted students in Western Australia. The interactive features of the technology provided the possibilities for task-related collaboration and gave students the opportunity to share, discuss, and evaluate concepts, thereby…

Argues for the adoption of a literacy pedagogy to enable tertiary level students from different language backgrounds to access expository text. The article describes the outcomes of a project exploring whether college freshmen from different language backgrounds had appropriate strategies and awareness levels to understand and retain ideas from…

Discussion of educational resources for rural and remote communities focuses on the design processes involved in the development of a Web-based unit for Indigenous Australian learners preparing to enter a university. Highlights learning tasks and styles of communication to promote equity and access, including ownership of learning, cultural…

Offers a framework for culturally inclusive pedagogy that can be applied to online environments. Proposes a theoretically grounded framework linking culturally inclusive learning with curriculum and assessment design, using the principle of constructive alignment so that instruction is flexible and relevant to students from a diverse range of…

How do educators and instructional designers assess the effectiveness of the learning environments they design? One important means of ensuring the effectiveness of instruction in distance and face-to-face settings is through provision of learner support. Increasingly, as learners utilize the World Wide Web for collaborative learning, support…