What matters most in online learning environments;A New Zealand case study

Universities are under increasing pressure to compete in an environment where globalisation of learning has produced increased numbers of student admissions into courses. Programs can potentially be delivered to offshore partner institutions with little consideration for the contextual or cultural d...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Siragusa, Lou, Dixon, Robert, Dixon, Kathryn
Other Authors: Ruth Jeffrey
Format: Conference Paper
Published: AARE Inc 2007
Online Access:http://www.aare.edu.au/data/publications/2006/sir06863.pdf
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/13191
_version_ 1848748281647071232
author Siragusa, Lou
Dixon, Robert
Dixon, Kathryn
author2 Ruth Jeffrey
author_facet Ruth Jeffrey
Siragusa, Lou
Dixon, Robert
Dixon, Kathryn
author_sort Siragusa, Lou
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Universities are under increasing pressure to compete in an environment where globalisation of learning has produced increased numbers of student admissions into courses. Programs can potentially be delivered to offshore partner institutions with little consideration for the contextual or cultural differences between the organisation delivering the program and those grappling with the program content and technology at a distance. The focus of this paper is to describe a small case of students studying within an online adult education program throughout 2005. The case represents a small group of adult learners who embarked upon a Graduate Certificate delivered by an Australian university in New Zealand. Rich qualitative data were collected through a focus group approach facilitated onsite in New Zealand. The results revealed a certain level of discomfort for students when learning through technology, a sense of apprehension when communicating online and varying levels of communication competence which impacted upon the success of the learning experience. The results also indicated that while the sample was determined to succeed in navigating the online environment they considered it to be problematic in terms of the competing demands of family, work and their specific learning styles.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T07:02:33Z
format Conference Paper
id curtin-20.500.11937-13191
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T07:02:33Z
publishDate 2007
publisher AARE Inc
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-131912022-11-21T05:19:40Z What matters most in online learning environments;A New Zealand case study Siragusa, Lou Dixon, Robert Dixon, Kathryn Ruth Jeffrey Elizabeth Wright Rebecca Feldman Amanda Davies Universities are under increasing pressure to compete in an environment where globalisation of learning has produced increased numbers of student admissions into courses. Programs can potentially be delivered to offshore partner institutions with little consideration for the contextual or cultural differences between the organisation delivering the program and those grappling with the program content and technology at a distance. The focus of this paper is to describe a small case of students studying within an online adult education program throughout 2005. The case represents a small group of adult learners who embarked upon a Graduate Certificate delivered by an Australian university in New Zealand. Rich qualitative data were collected through a focus group approach facilitated onsite in New Zealand. The results revealed a certain level of discomfort for students when learning through technology, a sense of apprehension when communicating online and varying levels of communication competence which impacted upon the success of the learning experience. The results also indicated that while the sample was determined to succeed in navigating the online environment they considered it to be problematic in terms of the competing demands of family, work and their specific learning styles. 2007 Conference Paper http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/13191 http://www.aare.edu.au/data/publications/2006/sir06863.pdf AARE Inc restricted
spellingShingle Siragusa, Lou
Dixon, Robert
Dixon, Kathryn
What matters most in online learning environments;A New Zealand case study
title What matters most in online learning environments;A New Zealand case study
title_full What matters most in online learning environments;A New Zealand case study
title_fullStr What matters most in online learning environments;A New Zealand case study
title_full_unstemmed What matters most in online learning environments;A New Zealand case study
title_short What matters most in online learning environments;A New Zealand case study
title_sort what matters most in online learning environments;a new zealand case study
url http://www.aare.edu.au/data/publications/2006/sir06863.pdf
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/13191