Selecting Survey Instruments For Engineering Education Evaluation

Dr Johannes Strobel

UWA Institute of Advanced Studies

Greetings from the cricket pavilion at the University of Western Australia, where I am taking part in a masterclass in Selecting Survey Instruments, by Dr Johannes Strobel, from the University of Missouri. Well I always thought it was the cricket pavilion, but turns out to be the UWA Institute of Advanced Studies. I am in Perth to speak at an international meeting of lawyers on cyber security, but I dropped in to discuss classroom design at Murdoch University yesterday, and am learning about the design of research specifically for STEM education at UWA today.

WA Government Reversed Decision to Close Schools of the Air

The Western Australia government has announced a planned closure of the WA Schools of the Air (SOTA) will not not take place. It had been planned to transfer students to the School of Isolated Distance Education (SIDE) in 2019. There was no mention of if six "camp school sites" which were also to be closed will be retained. The minister for education had characterized the closures of the SOTA as eliminating duplication. It is not clear if under the new plan there will be any integration of the regional SOTA with the metropolitan SIDE.

WA Government Closing Schools of the Air

The Western Australia Minister for Education and Training, Sue Ellery, has announced the closing of the WA Schools of the Air (SOTA) in 2019, with students transferred to the School of Isolated Distance Education (SIDE). Also six "camp school sites" are to be closed. The minister characterizes the closures of the SOTA as eliminating duplication and the camp school sites as "not the core business of education". While on-line learning can be beneficial, particularly for older students (Worthington, 2017), I suggest the removal of teachers from regional WA and cancellation of face-to-face student activities may have adverse educational outcomes.

Schools of the air originally provided courses via correspondence and radio. The Internet is now used for distance education (SIDE uses Moodle, developed in WA by Martin Dougiamas), however one unappreciated aspect of remote education are face-to-face camps where students can meet each other in person and meet their teacher. Rivalland, Rohl and Smith (2017) point out that in addition to synchronous electronic communication between the teacher and students, there are home visits by teachers, camps and seminars. Seven "Camp Schools" provide this socialization function for regional WA students: Broome, Bridgetown, Pemberton, Pilbara, Point Peron, Geraldton and Goldfields.

The five SOTA, are in regional WA: Port Hedland, Kimberley, Carnarvon, Kalgoorlie and Meekatharra. In contrast SIDE has one location in the capital city, Perth. The closures will result in teachers being 1,500 km from some of their students. While they will be milliseconds away via the Internet, there will be a cultural gap, with the city based teachers having little opportunity to understand the experience of their remote students. The WA Education Department's Institute for Professional Learning is collocated with SIDE, but does not list any courses for distance education teachers, only for classroom teaching.

There is a risk in younger students being education purely on-line and not developing social skills. The Minister's assertion that this is not the core business of education is questionable. If that were the case, then the WA Education Department could close down metropolitan Perth school campuses and only provide on-line education. Parents wanting their children to experience group activities and to be looked after during the day would then be required to pay for this a "non-core business".

The WA Government's move to rationalize regional school education may be followed in higher education. Australia's Regional Universities Network (RUN) has six members: CQ University, Southern Cross University, Federation University Australia, University of New England, University of Southern Queensland and University of the Sunshine Coast. Each institution has to have its own  administration and governance structures. While each grew out of a particular regional area of Australia, they now all offer courses to students across Australia, and in some case, via city based offices.

A model for closer cooperation by universities is Open Universities Australia (OUA), a consortium of city based universities: Curtin, Griffith, Macquarie, Monash, RMIT, Swinburne, and South Australia. It is important to note that OUA is "universities" plural. Students can undertake on-line courses at any of the consortium members, but then graduate with a degree from one (not from OUA).

References

Rivalland, J., Rohl, M., & Smith, P. (2017). Supporting students with learning difficulties in a school of the air. URL http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworks/7282/

Worthington, Tom (2017). Digital teaching in higher education : designing e-learning for international students of technology, innovation and the environment. Belconnen, A.C.T. TomW Communications Pty Ltd URL

http://www.tomw.net.au/digital_teaching/

Moodle: Massive Open Online Design of Learning and Education

On my last full day in Perth I dropped in to visit Moodle HQ. Few realize that the globally used free open source e-learning software Moodle, was developed in Perth, Australia. Moodle creator, Martin Dougiamas, was kind enough to show me around, back in Perth between his many trips top e-leaning events. We discussed the future of e-leaning and of Moodle (which I use to teach at ANU and the Australian Computer Society). I am not sure we came to any conclusions, except that adapting Moodle Mobile using HTML was a better idea that trying to produce an "App" and that it would be better for universities to continue to incorporate e-learning generally than try to set up a new on-line university. One suggestion I made was to provide training in educational techniques alongside the training for Moodle software. This could be reasonably general with the same techniques being applied from school to postgraduate university.

MOOCs in Future of UWA

Paul Johnson, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Western Australia (UWA) issued "UWA Futures: White Paper" in August 2012. There were responses from UWA academics over the next few months, UWA Academic Staff Association (March 2013). In November 2012, the UWA Vice-Chancellor issued "UWA Futures: The Response". This appeared a useful, if somewhat limited exercise in consulting the university community on a difficult issue, of what a university is. The ANU embarked on a consultation process in mid 2013, but this concentrated on possible budget cuts, rather than the nature of a university.

The original white paper suggested that Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) from new commercial and not-for-profit organizations will compete with universities for students. The paper argued that UWA should seize these opportunities which result. However that was the only mention of MOOCs in the white paper, so it was not clear what it is proposed to do. The responses discussed MOOCs and the issues with e-learning and provision of technology to students in more details.

The paper argued there will be negligible growth in student numbers for the remainder the decade, which seems to me be at odds with the rapid growth in the middle class in developing nations, who can now afford university education. However, UWA proposes to increase its student fees, which could price it out of this growing market.

Under "Proposal 1" UWA would "... conduct a full review of pedagogic purpose and practice in 2013, with the aim of introducing new pedagogies from the beginning of 2015". This would appear to be essentially about the role of e-learning, but the large scale Interactive Engagement being introduced at ANU could also be an option. Some of the responses discussed this, with approaches such as the flipped classroom. The UWA Academic Staff Association went further, proposing that MOOCs could be used for teaching, complementing a Humboldtian model of the university, where students are not locked into a rigid program.

Proposal 3 envisaged "... personalised mentoring and academic support  for all... students...". However, there was no mention of the new skills which staff will need to provide this support, not how they will acquire it. Some responses asked about training for faculty in mentoring.

ps: I will be in Perth, WA, 23 September to 18 October 2013.