Papers in PDF format

Impact of the Introduction of Web-Based Teaching on Academic Staff
Introduction
Pamela Andrew and Graeme Hart
Faculty of Education
The University of Melbourne
Australia
Online systems, particularly Internet-based, are making inroads into the more traditional methods of teaching
in universities where "new communications technologies such as computer networking enable new approaches
to and opportunities for teaching and learning" (Harasim, 1995:K5). The trend to offer courses in distance/offcampus
mode is designed to cater for the changing requirements of students, particularly those who find oncampus
attendance difficult. While there has been extensive research which examines the needs of the
students for distance education, there has been less attention given to the needs of the teaching staff as
providers. While needs assessment is an integral part of program planning (Owen, 1993), there are few
examples of needs assessment in higher education; this paper is a contribution to the knowledge base in this
area.
This paper reports the first phase in a longitudinal study of academic staff in a large faculty of education
regarding knowledge of, and attitudes to the introduction of World Wide Web-based online delivery within the
Faculty. Strategic objectives adopted by the Faculty for 1997-99 include a goal "to increase the capacity for
flexible course delivery (including by distance mode) and to improve the quality of teaching and learning
through a rapid expansion in online access to courses using multimedia and in anticipation of widespread
access to broadband technologies" (Faculty of Education, 1996: 7). The plan also seeks to "... ensure
competence in the use of information technologies of staff ...". A “technology and teaching” committee, with
mainly academic representatives from each department, is taking an active role in the program implementing
the Faculty’s objectives for flexible course delivery, attempting to involve staff in the process of change,
avoiding “top-down” and “bottom-up” models of change which may not lead to lasting improvement (Owen et
al, 1994).
Initially, all staff were invited to two demonstrations: firstly a demonstration of electronic conferencing as used
by the Open University in the United Kingdom, followed by a demonstration of the innovations in online
subject delivery of two members of staff. Included in the second demonstration was a presentation of a range
of electronic conferencing options.
Following these demonstrations a 36 item pencil and paper questionnaire was completed by staff. This was
designed to gauge the knowledge and attitudes of staff before the faculty’s program of online delivery began in
earnest. The questionnaire investigated four aspects:
• the extent to which staff utilised information technology personally and in their teaching;
• the extent to which staff agreed with statements regarding the potential use of information technology in
education;
• possible barriers to the implementation of information technology in teaching;
• perceived needs for training relevant to the introduction of teaching with information/online technology.
Results
In this paper we report on the views of 30 academic staff from across the Faculty 1 about the use of Information
Technology (IT).
1 the response rate for the survey was 24%, a rather disappointing result. Thus the findings here cannot be
extrapolated to the faculty as a whole. The questionnaire employed a five point scale for all items (ratings 1 to
5) with 5 corresponding to ‘a large extent’ and 1 to ‘not at all’. In addition, staff were encouraged to provided
open ended written responses to key aspects of the content of the questionnaire.