ITI Articles

Laidlaw College’s new Certificate in Online Tutoring for theological educators began on 2 November 2009 and has given the college’s e-Learning team the opportunity to contribute to international practice. 

The course, compulsory for the Centre for Distance Learning’s online tutors, will for the first time feature ten trainees from beyond New Zealand’s borders. Various personnel from the Jordan-based Program for Theological Education by Extension (PTEE) have joined the Laidlaw College group (including Rick Weymouth, a College graduate). The new certificate draws on Laidlaw College’s experiences with course design, distance learning and the internet. Recently the trainees met in Connect Pro, an online presentation tool, for a virtual presentation and discussion. Trainees from Jordan and Australia were all present. 

The e-Learning team has also been sharing its good practice through articles. One, with Peter Cowie (Instructional Designer) as primary author, has been accepted for publication in The Journal of Distance Education. The article describes the process of working with faculty to develop course materials suitable for both on-campus and distance use. Mark Nichols (e-Learning Specialist) has recently finished three projects for Ako Aotearoa, the New Zealand National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence. Most recently, a report examining student retention in the Centre for Distance Learning confirms the excellent work being done by Grace Sylvester and Naomi Quirke, the Academic Support Coordinators who joined the CDL team in 2008. The first two projects were the last in a series  of e-Learning articles now published on the Website of Ako Aotearoa. On 15th and 22nd October, Mark facilitated webinar sessions (live, online presentations) to Australasian and US participants called “Reframing e-Learning: A critical consideration of some core concepts.” The webinars drew on Mark’s Ako Aotearoa work, and made use of Adobe Connect Pro, an online meeting application available to Laidlaw College faculty. Mark is also an invited speaker at next month’s Ascilite conference, Australasia’s largest e-Learning related event, being held at Auckland University.