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Hi John,
AMSI/ICE-EM (http://www.ice-em.org.au/AGR/) have
government funding to assist with the establishment of Access grid rooms in
mathematics departments throughout Australia. I think the funding covers
about 16 rooms, of which 3 (La Trobe, Wollongong and Uni. South
Australia) have been up and running from the second half of last year.
Another 5-6 rooms should be running by the second semester this
year.
The plan is that departments will share an honours year subject or 2
over the grid each semester and students from any of the universities will be
able to sit in on them. A list of current offerings can be seen here: http://www.ice-em.org.au/AGR/subjects_and_courses.html
La Trobe has put on a couple of subjects so far, and we've had a few
students from Wollongong sit in on them. The feedback has been very positive
(except for one local student who saw the technology as a distraction
from the "real beauty of the mathematics"). Since the numbers involved have been
low to this point, we have not bothered with the funding side of things although
this may change in the future. La Trobe hosted a "workshop" in December last
year where academic representatives from the various universities got together
and discussed funding models, subject prerequisites, misconduct, complaint
procedures etc. It seems no conclusion was drawn on the funding side of things,
but some of the other policies that were decided can be view at http://www.ice-em.org.au/AGR/assets/Documentation/AGR_Teaching_Pol.pdf
I
think the academics have seen teaching over the grid and a
little extra marking as quite minor inconveniences when compared to
the gains for our students. We have the same problem mentioned by your staff in
that the enrolments at honours year are quite low, and we don't have the
resources to teach a large variety of subjects at that level. With the roll out
of these AG rooms, our students may eventually have 20+ subjects
to choose from, instead of the 4-5 they currently get.
Another initiative (unrelated to the AG) put in place by ICE-EM/AMSI is a
summer school (http://www.ice-em.org.au/students.html#summer).
This is hosted at different locations around the country each year, and
honours/postgraduate students can give up part of their holidays to do a subject
compressed into the month before our actual teaching semester starts. From
what I hear, this has been a huge success. The students attend all the lectures
in 2 weeks and then get 2-4 weeks to work on assignments etc. While it is hard
work for both the students and lecturers there are plenty of rewards. The staff
get to teach to a much larger class than they traditionally would, and the
students enjoy learning from new lecturers and meeting students from other
universities. They also all get to lessen their workload during the
normal semester.
I tend to think that
a lot of this would not be possible without an organization external to the
universities driving it all and obtaining government funding. Faculty
staff simply don't have the time or energy required.
Given that the
funding side of things is still being "wrestled" with here, we would also like
to hear any recommendations/success stories.
Regards,
Darren.
Darren Condon From: owner-ag-tech@xxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-ag-tech@xxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of john langkals Sent: Thursday, 3 May 2007 12:08 AM To: 'ag-tech' Subject: [AG-TECH] Distant Education Funding Models I am looking for any input
from the Access Grid community concerning distant education funding
models. **It’s a little late, but I would like to suggest a broader topic
as motivation for the Access Grid Retreat: AG Distant Education Funding
Models. The interest has been
generated at other universities to have their students possibly 'take' some of
our advanced courses, IF we can come up with a funding model that works.
We have the technology and expertise in house to do this, but don't know how to
handle the funding mechanics. Within various departments,
faculty complains of not enough grad students to justify teaching their favorite
seminars. It’s suggested that they investigate spreading the opportunity
around by investigating whether we could 'share' students among a number of
universities, with instruction shared among the faculty.
What do you do at your
respective institutions? Are there any success stories to share?
Thank
you, John
John
Langkals Systems
Manager 614.292.6957
Office 614.327.3732
Cell 614.292.7557
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