Really interesting first day. First up was the supporting distance learners colloquium run by Mark Brown and Mike Keppell (see photo J ). They provided feedback from their research into student experiences of distance education (capturing the “first year voice” in education). The project is really fascinating and it was great to see and hear feedback from students about their experiences (via the PowerPoint presentation, but watching the snippets of video was great!).

Mark’s presentation was really fascinating, and I certainly won’t be doing it justice here. Hopefully he will be able to discuss his really interesting work with us further. He mentioned (among many other things) the emergence of new business models, and raised a really interesting issue that traditional universities are competing with private for profit universities. And while the regulatory framework is different in Australia and New Zealand from America, where a lot of the private universities are being established, it nevertheless highlights some very interesting trends in other parts of the world that will no doubt have a substantial influence on us.

All up, given the pressures of the differences between formal and informal learning (and why students will pay for information they can get free online), new business models and the problems of attrition and completion, effective student engagement is the key.

The feedback from the students in Mark’s project showed (among other things) that the first few weeks are very important, but that there is a second critical period for students about ¾ the way through the semester. Also highlighted was digital literacy levels, and how few students know how to be an effective online learner.

On the topic of student engagement, listening to some of the great projects other people are working on, I can say that our work (and in particular the pre-reading service and OWLL) are brilliant resources for students.

General conversation topics: Some of the themes emerging over here are access, equity and social justice, and ensuring that what might be technological solutions to some problems, might actually prevent other students from participating.  The issue of equity was mentioned especially in relation to students in rural Australia where there is very limited access to the internet etc. Someone also mentioned that the expectations of academics (and teaching and learning consultants) is high, however our access to reliable good equipment does not always match those expectations. Overall though there is a sense that online learning provides the opportunity for richer learning.