October 2006 Volume 9 Number 4

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effectively engage in online learning. While there are minorities who have a ‘fascination with technology’ and regard themselves as ‘advanced users’, the majority of students, typically around three-quarters, regard computer technology only as a tool, and themselves as but ‘competent’ users of computers. At the institutional level, knowledge of both technical and educational principles is required to construct an online learning environment. This combination of skills is one that few teachers have or might be expected to have. Presently, the three spheres of knowledge needed to create online learning environments (content, technology and pedagogy) remain noticeably divorced from one another within the institution. Culture Hong Kong society has been an ‘early adopter’ of internet technology, and this acceptance and use has been especially rapid and pervasive in the ‘educated’ sector of society. As early as 2002, a HK Government survey indicated 93.4% of all students above the age of ten were ‘internet users’ (HKCSD, 2003). In Hong Kong, there is clear acceptance, and even anticipation, of the growing role of internet technology in society (see ITU, 2003). In terms of acceptance of online learning specifically, it is worth noting that while it is consistent with the desired ‘educational culture shift’ toward student-centered, flexible, life-long learning based on critical thinking and personal responsibility, it does represent a significant departure from the surface-learning heritage of passive spoon-fed ‘threshold’ recall in the teacher-centered, examination-oriented secondary system (e.g. Yeung, 2005, p. E3). Practices that focus on continuing assessment, development of non-recall skills, “discourse of participation” (Li, 1999) and ‘out-of-the-box’ extension of concepts into non-familiar contexts can elicit some reluctance by a minority who regard formal tertiary education as a series of heavily guided and detailed shortterm assessment and content-based thresholds. The move to more student-centred learning approaches requires commensurate change in both the teachers’ and students’ attitudes to learning. For some students, this adjustment is difficult because of the greater responsibility placed on them for the learning that takes place. In all courses, there was an identified minority of students who attempted to replicate the familiar teacher-centered approach. This was illustrated by, for example, their attendance at course tutorials not to engage in discussion with teachers and peers, but in the hope they would receive a ‘lecture’, and their requests for highly specific exemplar assessment material. Such students found the flexibility of online learning a challenge to their personal time-management. “It is good to have the online material available all the time but when there are lots of other assignment (e.g. tutorial work in other courses), working online will be put at a later priority” [HKNE student, 2003-04]. For these students, these observations suggest a distinct preference for definite threshold instruction and a dictated time-management environment when the ‘stakes are higher’ and a consequent reluctance to assume a high-degree of personal responsibility for the learning that takes place. The motivating desire appears to be ‘not to fail’ rather than ‘to learn’. For the majority, the ‘leap’ to more student-centred environments is welcome, with feedback indicating they perceive this environment as beneficial to their personal and academic development. At the institutional level, such developments require that teachers are knowledgeable in basic educational principles, specifically how students best learn. They must be willing and able to invest time and effort in teacher professional development and consequent development of practice. Teachers need to be supported by an institutional culture that recognizes and rewards teaching as a primary role of the university. The author’s experience, in her recent role as Faculty Teaching & Learning Network (TLN) Consultant, suggests the dominant institutional culture at HKU regards ‘education’ as a subordinate university function. By way of illustration, a TLN survey of the Faculty’s teachers identified that 38% believed teaching performance has no impact on promotion prospects, and almost all (94%) of the respondents indicated that their teaching has not been recognized in any way at Faculty or University level. Almost all those surveyed indicated they spent more time on research than teaching roles. Not surprisingly then, less than 15% of Science teachers had engaged in teacher professional development activities or programmes offered by the staff development unit during their tenure at HKU. Less than 5% had prepared a teaching portfolio to document their development as a teacher. Teacher knowledge of documentation intended to guide teaching development (i.e. Departmental Development Plans [DDP’s] and the 2002 externally-reviewed Faculty Teaching and Learning Quality Process Review [TLQPR] submissions) was negligible. 87
Resources The development of online learning at HKU does not appear limited by technological knowledge or resources, with required hardware and internet access being pervasively available, both on campus and within the community as a whole. In the University, the HKU/IBM Assured Access Mobile Computing Programme, which commenced in 1998, seeks to provide subsidized purchase of IBM notebook computers and software to incoming students. It has historically attracted around 80% of first-year full-time (FYFT) students (see Table 2), despite the fact that almost all such students have existing computer resources already available (HKUCAUT, 2004). Table 2. Computer hardware availability for first-year students at HKU. Data from HKUCAUT (2004) Percentage of HKU FYFT students taking up HKU/IBM Student Notebook Computer Programme 1998/99 1999/00 2000/01 2001/02 84.8 78.9 79.3 75.3 Percentage of HKU first year students with computer ownership (by student or student’s family) before enrolment 1998/99 1999/00 2000/01 2001/02 92.0 96.4 99.0 99.3 In addition to this private-ownership program, the University, with a full time enrolment of around 12,000, further records 5,630 ‘public’ computers (HKUERO, 2003). In concert with this, The University of Hong Kong has invested extensively in network infrastructure, both on campus and in the halls of residence, in order to achieve ‘ubiquitous’ network access. Hallnet ensures “all student residential halls are connected to the HKU Campus Network with a network point provided for each hall resident”, and the Access Everywhere Network (ACEnet), “provides extensive roaming network access for use by staff and students” on the remainder of the campus (HKUCC, 2004). The External Relations Office (HKUERO, 2003) records impressive figures of 22,220 network points, 10,320 PC connection points, 450 wireless network access points, and 308 Mbps total bandwidth for direct connection to the internet available on the campus. Access to courses must also be readily available off campus, and in this regard, HK is exceptionally wellresourced. In the wider off-campus community, the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) estimates there are in excess of 2.33 million registered internet accounts in Hong Kong (March 2004), excluding users ‘who are not customers of the licensed ISPs, such as users of the campus networks in the universities’. (OFTA, 2004a, p.3). This represents approximately one registered account for every three citizens. Further to the availability of internet connection, the typical bandwidth in HK is very high. As a result of the concentrated apartment block housing, over 95% of HK households have broadband (services with downloading speed of 1 Mbps or above) potentially available. This is complemented by the highest international internet bandwidth per capita in the Asia-Pacific region and near the lowest broadband connection fees, allowing pricing to become among the cheapest in the region (ITU, 2003). There has been a consequent rapid expansion and conversion to broadband in the HK market, with an 18-fold increase in broadband accounts in the 2000-2003 period (OFTA, 2004b). By 2003, 83.7% of household internet connections were broadband (HKCSD, 2003). Such transition in bandwidth is mirrored by the ‘home’ connection shown in representative post-course surveys over the last few years, with the 2003 MBBS cohort the first to report 100% broadband access. In terms of comparative statistics with respect to internet resources, be it in terms of availability, bandwidth, or pricing, Hong Kong holds a pre-eminent place internationally, and is accordingly developing into a ‘broadband society’ where a pervasive range of societal functions (e.g. banking, travel, utilities, government) is becoming available online. With respect to the institution, HKU is extremely well-provisioned with the hardware and software infrastructure components for the ‘consumption’ of online learning. It does, however, suffer in the provision of time, training and support necessary to ‘implement’ such an initiative. A succession of short-lived central support centers, with their often ill-defined financing and independent service role, has historically been poorly utilized by individual 88
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October 2006 Volume 9 Number 4
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Guidelines for authors Submissions
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How Does Educational Technology Ben
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Adaptivity is one of the most impor
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3. Ease of editing and updating: wh
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Accessible and personalized Learnin
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From this definition, we figured ou
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Verifying contents Figure 3. The pa
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Figure 7. The ISA on line interface
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Adaptive Technology Resource Centre
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World Wide Web Consortium (1999a).
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guiding and supporting environment
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As an example, to improve the acces
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option). Although this finding migh
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of eLearning content and enhance th
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Hodgings, W. & Duval, E. (2002). IE
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the entire course of study. This sy
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information useful for the contextu
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Nr of student 25 20 15 10 5 0 a - w
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Vincenzo, a second year student, ne
Page 41 and 42: Evaluation Recently embodied conver
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Page 45 and 46: Poggi, I., Pelachaud, C., & de Rosi
Page 47 and 48: Lanzilotti, R., Ardito, C., & Costa
Page 49 and 50: quality in use, which is measured b
Page 51 and 52: process of designing high quality c
Page 53 and 54: eLSE methodology Designers and eval
Page 55 and 56: Execution phase Execution phase act
Page 57 and 58: on the inspection process and, cons
Page 59 and 60: Piccinini, N., & Scollo, G. (2006).
Page 61 and 62: Answers and reinforcement A.1: Use
Page 63 and 64: potential project ideas (from pure
Page 65 and 66: For each column in Table 2, the sum
Page 67 and 68: educational goals and the various r
Page 69 and 70: A new computerized Records Manageme
Page 71 and 72: eflected in artifacts and other str
Page 73 and 74: any distributed community include b
Page 75 and 76: message in order to obtain a respon
Page 77 and 78: Figure 3. Social network after intr
Page 79 and 80: increased face-to-face collaboratio
Page 81 and 82: References Bogenrieder, I. (2002).
Page 83 and 84: Donoghue, S. L. (2006). Institution
Page 85 and 86: contemplate part-time, rather than
Page 87 and 88: espective institutions. The primary
Page 89 and 90: greater flexibility in course selec
Page 91: Cost-benefit One distinct benefit o
Page 95 and 96: courses where it is has little pote
Page 97 and 98: A fellowship programme, such as the
Page 99 and 100: Moore, M.G. (1998). Introduction. I
Page 101 and 102: Software reuse has two dimensions,
Page 103 and 104: Courseware development process mode
Page 105 and 106: Didactics analysis This phase consi
Page 107 and 108: Process didactics design We focus o
Page 109 and 110: The repository is organized into co
Page 111 and 112: the analysis and the design phase o
Page 113 and 114: Figure 12. Weaving content and dida
Page 115 and 116: complete user-specific (author, ins
Page 117 and 118: References ADL (Advanced Distribute
Page 119 and 120: Bender, D. M., & Vredevoogd, J. D.
Page 121 and 122: (see Figure 2). The incorporation o
Page 123 and 124: Figure 4: Example of Summary Image
Page 125 and 126: The competitive nature of design cl
Page 127 and 128: Dias, L. B. (1999, November). Integ
Page 129 and 130: materials built into the system. Th
Page 131 and 132: This theory of multimedia learning
Page 133 and 134: E-Tutor (with video). Two weeks aft
Page 135 and 136: empirically tested in TML environme
Page 137 and 138: Rieber, L. P., (1990). Animation in
Page 139 and 140: Appendix B The following 44 items r
Page 141 and 142: Appendix C A Sample of Exam Questio
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Appendix D Perceived Usefulness Que
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Kirkpatrick, and Peck (2001) have a
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2001). The system thus aims to assi
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a strong agreement between the two
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of the dynasty. 3. Information on
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Comparing works designed using the
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Tselios, N., Stoica, A., Maragoudak
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strategies during their interaction
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P(B|D) is the probability of a netw
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Online help adaptation using Bayesi
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AUSM that will return the most prob
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direct experimentation with a new s
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Figure 7. An example of use of the
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Cooper, J. & Herskovits, E. (1992).
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Goldberg, A. K., & Riemer, F. J. (2
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In addition to convenience, propone
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members increased flexibility. They
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Oppenheimer, T. (1997, July). The c
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The basis of reform in science educ
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technology and are not confident in
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participants that learning as a gro
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A hierarchy of Systems Identifying
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the change agents to recognize the
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Nonis, A. S., & O’Bannon, B. (200
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maintaining the interest levels of
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Focus group interviews with our stu
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course and again at the end of the
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second phase of valuing, commitment
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Kinzie, M. B., Whitaker, S. D., Nee
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Although this work is based on a st
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Website Design The MTP website (www
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Researchers, for review and coding
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quality that are the focus of the M
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Kelley, M. A., Whitaker, S. D., Nee
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or underserved populations. For exa
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2004 Baruch College Computer Center
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professional-level tools and resour
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Third, with the exception of the Om
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Hepp, P., Hinostroza, E., Laval, E.
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The AccessForAll strategy complemen
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of people with special needs, or di
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(including where their search for r
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international standard. The ISO pro
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information will be expressed using
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DC Metadata Terms: http://dublincor
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Choquet, C., & Corbière, A. (2006)
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TEL Standards, Specifications and P
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The Resources Management Process ma
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Step 1: Instantiation of the enterp
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Step 5: Instantiation of the techno
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correlation of the different viewpo
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Hummel, H., Manderveld, J., Tatters
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Karagiannidis, C. (2006). Book revi
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Glenn, L. (2006). Book review: Visu
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October 2006 Volume 9 Number 4

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