Partners

Sydney eLearning works closely with seconded staff from the faculties to ensure that strategic resources are most usefully deployed across the clusters. Below are the eLearning cluster directors who coordinate the expression of interest processes in the prioritisation of strategic eLearning projects for faculties.

Humanities and Social Sciences Cluster - Dr Fran Waugh

As a life long learner and a relative newcomer to this role (since August 2007) my key aim is to increase academics’ awareness about the ways Sydney eLearning can enhance and improve students’ learning experiences. Our cluster has over 21,000 students engaged in a diverse range of learning opportunities.

Similar to the other two cluster convenors one of my major roles, together with our Sydney eLearning project manager, involves facilitating open and continuing discussions between faculty reps. The threefold purpose of these monthly discussions are: one, to communicate the key issues and current University projects regarding eLearning; two, to identify what are the diverse eLearning needs of academic staff and three, to provide feedback to Sydney eLearning about these. The other major role encompasses promoting the support offered by Sydney eLearning to assist academics who are wanting to engage with eLearning. In short my role is about working collaboratively and cooperatively with academics and Sydney eLearning staff to foster the development of a community of academics who inspire and stimulate students’ learning through creating and integrating pedagogically appropriate eLearning opportunities.

Sciences and Technology Cluster - Associate Professor Mary Peat

My role within the Sydney eLearning portfolio, since 2004, has been to help foster a greater awareness of the ways we can create good student learning experiences, especially using online resources. I facilitate open and ongoing discussions between staff in the faculties and the members of Sydney eLearning through monthly meetings between faculty reps with our Sydney eLearning Project Manager. Whilst we are continually reassessing our longer term goals and activities, during each year we have also been responsible, as a group, for the implementation of a number of projects that are pivotal to the future development of the appropriate blended learning environments that will suit the students of the 21st century.

Health Sciences Cluster - Associate Professor Sandra West

I am an Associate Professor of Clinical Nursing with a strong interest in eLearning – particularly in relation to its use within health-related disciplines where the need to work across the 24 hour period and the geographical isolation of specialty practice in health can mean that establishing learning groups is a logistically complex and costly exercise. I have been interested in the use of computers for educational purposes for over 20 years and involved with the university’s eLearning initiatives for some time, and am looking forward to extending my faculty perspective to include the views and needs of the Health cluster faculties. My intended focus is the facilitation of cross faculty-based pedagogical discussion, on which effective eLearning rests. I also want to support the development of ideas to extend the use of current eLearning tools within clinical teaching, and to engage with the learning opportunities offered by the implementation of the streaming server and the ePortfolio project.