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Pre-Conference
Seminar: Systems
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INVITED SPEAKER
Evaluation of Information Technology in
Higher Education
Shirley Alexander, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
This paper will present the results of a two year study to evaluate the contribution of Information Technology projects to learning in higher education in Australia.
The study was commissioned by the Committee for the Advancement of University Teaching (CAUT), a committee of the Federal Government, which allocates grants to academics wishing to improved the quality of teaching and learning in higher education. Approximately $3million is allocated each year, and many of the grants awarded are for projects which utilise information technology. This study was commissioned to evaluate the impact on learning of projects which made substantial use of information technologies.
The study reviewed 104 IT projects which had received a total of $4million in funding, and developed detailed case studies of 20 projects across a range of technologies (including Interactive Multimedia, WWW courses and Computer Mediated Communication) and disciplines.
The report reviews the projects in terms of four questions:
1. What has the introduction of information technologies contributed to student learning
in higher education?
2. How do practitioners decide to use information technology in their teaching, and choose
particular technologies?
3. How does a teacher learn to use and develop information technology for teaching?
4. How does a teacher evaluate the improvement of student learning stimulated by
information technology?
The paper will review the issues arising from the study, and highlight the recommendations related to policies and practices in the development and use of information technology in higher education.
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Shirley
Alexander http://www.iim.uts.edu.au/about/sa.shtml Associate Professor and Director |