In May 1995, a group of enthusiastic teachers and library staff from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) got together to brainstorm ideas about how we could use the Internet as a method of teaching and learning.
The team, led by Laurie Armstrong, who was then Course Coordinator for Local Government, became familiar with the World Wide Web Internet navigation system by exploring a number of sites some of which were identified by library staff.
Together, they produced a model for mounting programs online which incorporated access to learning resources and course information, a range of communication functions, administrative services and monitoring methods.
Two modules from the Associate Diploma in Social Science (Local Government) were put online, namely, Introduction to Australian Government and Introduction to Research. They can be viewed at wwwtafe.lib.rmit.edu.au/localgov/localgov.html
Fifteen students from the second year Associate Diploma course took part in the first pilot of Introduction to Australian Government in semester one.
The experiences of the teachers and students involved in the trial has recently been published in a report titled ‘Teaching and Learning Online’. It is available from Open Training Services (OTS).
The work to date has been recognised with the team recently awarded the RMIT Quality Award 1996 for outstanding quality improvement contributions in Teaching and Learning.
For further information contact Leone Wheeler at RMIT, telephone (03) 9660 4927.
*Copy supplied by RMIT.
