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The Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia (ODDLA)

Facilitators: 
A/Professor Judi Walker is Director, Department of Rural Health, The University of Tasmania, Launceston, Tasmania, 7250. Tel: 03 6324 4011; Fax: 03 6324 4040; Judith.Walker@utas.edu.au

A/Professor Som Naidu is from the Multimedia Education Unit, at The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, 3010, Phone: 03-9344-7575: Fax: 03-9344-4341; s.naidu@meu.unimelb.edu.au.

Join Judi and Som to creatively explore your own ideas, and interests on the analysis of subject matter content in interactive learning environments. These are some of the critical questions that will be explored:

1. What is subject matter content? Is it the same as facts, principles and procedures? Or is it something else as well?

2. What are some meaningful ways of identifying and viewing content? Why are these ways meaningful? Do they have something to do with "learning", how knowledge is acquired, and how is meaning derived?

3. What is learning? How do people learn various types of content? To what extent is learning an individual or social phenomenon? Does content feature in this equation? If so how and to what extent?

Come prepared to work on your own project or something that has baffled you and your colleagues. Be prepared to critically reflect on your current dispositions as well as that of the others. And perhaps work towards a prototype of a learning model, which can be applied and then reported on as paper for submission to Distance Education: An International Journal. www.usq.edu.au/dec/decjourn/demain.htm

Those who register for the Workshop will be sent reading material which will review strategies for sequencing and synthesizing content. This review material will attempt to summarise research relating to the following design criteria:

1. Sequencing (which is the presentation order of subject matter content); and

2. Synthesis (which is the kinds of content relationships that should be taught, as well as the way these should be taught).

With respect to sequencing, theory and research on the following approaches, among several others as well will be reviewed:

• Macro level sequences such as Bruner's spiral approach, Ausubel's general-to-detailed sequencing based on progressive differentiation, Gagne's hierarchical sequencing for intellectual skills, and Reigeluth's simple-to-complex sequencing as proposed in Elaboration Theory;

• Micro-level sequences such as rule-example versus example-rule, and the order of instances in the form of examples or practice.

With respect to synthesis, theory and research will be reviewed on Ausubel's advance organisers, Danserau's networking, Anderson's mapping, Novak's concept mapping, Pask's entailment structures, and Reigeluth's synthesizers. The relations between sequencing and synthesizing will also be reviewed.

Participants will also be sent background-reading material on selected case studies, which demonstrate innovative approaches to the presentation of "content". Registered participants in the workshop will be asked to study these case studies with the following in mind:

• What is innovative about the approaches to content analysis taken?

• Why do you think the designers took that approach to content representation?

• Is the approach driven by the nature of the subject matter content, and/or some belief about learning?

Prior to the Workshop participants will have the opportunity to engage in some electronic discussion of these questions, and why these approaches might be appealing or not appealing to their own contexts and problem situations.

Registered participants in the workshop will be required to bring to the workshop at least one learning and teaching situation which they will work on during the workshop.

During the Workshop participants will:

• Engage in a discussion of the issues surrounding the nature of subject matter content, its analysis, sequencing and synthesis.

• Engage in critical analysis of the approach to content analysis in case study materials that will be presented. A range of case study material will be presented to demonstrate the full spectrum of approaches to subject matter representation. These will include, Role Play Simulation, Case-Based Reasoning, Problem-Based Learning, and more.

• In small groups work on developing an approach to the sequencing and synthesizing of content on their own learning and teaching task..

Participants will move between a single large group, to several smaller groups, and back to a whole group during the day. In the morning the composition of the separate groups will be dictated by the constitution of specified Task Groups; each Task Group is expected to be between 3 - 6 people. Subsequent Working Groups, and their composition, will emerge throughout the day. The size will depend upon the Task being addressed, and their shared interests and is likely to be between 2 - 8 people.

After the Workshop participants will be able to continue to work with the facilitators of the workshop in further developing their cases/projects.

There will be opportunities for implementing their designs and reporting on their findings as papers for publications as case studies or papers in Distance Education: An International Journal.

Maximum number of participants: 30

Cost: $160 per person (includes pre-workshop documents, morning and afternoon tea and lunch)

Associate Professor Judi Walker

Dr Judi Walker, is Director of the University Department of Rural Health in Tasmania, Australia. A health informatician and educator, she is facilitating linkages between health service and medical education delivery through a combined network of Teaching and Telehealth Sites.

Currently she is leading a team to develop the Tasmanian Health Informatics Education and Training Project, which has been established as a collaborative project between the University of Tasmania’s Department of Rural Health and the Tasmanian Department of Health and Human Services. Its purpose is to provide opportunities for rural health workers to develop information technology and telecommunication skills. As health care is increasingly utilising computers and communications technology, this Project will play a vital role in maintaining quality health care in Tasmania by ensuring that health care workers have the necessary skills to exploit the technology as it becomes available.

The Team is developing appropriate short course modules in health-related aspects of information management and information technology, which will ultimately articulate into an accredited Health Informatics course. To cater for the range of professions within the health field, and consequent health informatics specialisations, the modules reflect flexible learning and delivery, learning pathways and learning outcomes.

Judi Walker is recognised for work in rural health education and in open learning, particularly the application of information and communications technology to improve access and quality of health education for targeted groups. She was Project Director of two research projects that have influenced Australian policy and practice for people with disabilities. As Senior Consultant with the Open Learning Technology Corporation she successfully completed a number of projects exploring the educational potential of information and communications technology. In January 1996, she was commissioned to complete the Australian Education Broadband Project; an investigation into the future and potential use of high capacity communications services in all Australian education and training sectors. The findings informed the development of The Future Is Already Here, a cross-sectoral national strategy for the management of change towards a high capacity communications services environment in Australian education and training.. She is national President of the Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia.

Associate Professor Som Naidu

Dr. Naidu is Associate Professor in the Multimedia Education Unit, and adjunct A/Prof in the Department of Learning and Educational Development (Faculty of Education) at The University of Melbourne. Dr. Naidu possesses undergraduate qualifications in Curriculum and Instruction (USP, Fiji and Waikato, NZ), graduate qualifications in Distance Education (USP, Fiji), and in Educational Technology (Montreal, Canada).

Dr. Naidu's research and work experience includes the design, development and evaluation of computer and non-computer based learning materials for a wide range of contexts with particular focus on the application of learning strategies. He has also taught courses on learning and instructional design at the graduate levels. Dr. Naidu has close to 15 years working experience in Instructional Design in the tertiary education sector (1980-87 at The University of the South Pacific; 1992-1997 at The University of Southern Queensland, Australia). He continues to maintain his interest in instructional design, both in academic and non-academic settings. Dr. Naidu is widely published on the subject, in both peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. Between 1994-1997, Dr. Naidu and his colleagues received three DETYA grants for the development of innovative learning and teaching designs. The product of one of these received the "Best Papers Award" by The Interactive Multimedia Electronic Journal of Computer Enhanced Learning (http://imej.wfu.edu/), at the EDMEDIA '99 Conference in Seattle, USA). Dr. Naidu is a member of several professional associations, Executive Editor of "Distance Education: An International Journal" and Co-Editor-in-Chief of "The Electronic Journal of Instructional Science and Technology". Dr. Naidu's doctoral dissertation (1991) on the cognitive outcomes of selected learning strategies received the "Outstanding Student Research Award" by two reputable professional organisations; The International Society for Performance Improvement (1994), and the Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia (1993).

Dr. Naidu has spent more than 15 years in roles, which have involved supporting academic staff in their integration of technology into teaching and learning (1980-87 at The University of the South Pacific; 1992-1997 at The University of Southern Queensland, Australia, 1998--present at the University of Melbourne, Australia). These roles have involved a range of activities comprising workshop based activities as well as one-on-one consultations with subject matter experts in transforming their delivery of subject matter content. In the last 8 years, Dr. Naidu has facilitated more than 25 such faculty support workshops. He has also been invited on numerous occasions to offer guest lectures on subject matter representation, learning and instructional design, and evaluation.

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