"Evaluating students' learning styles provides knowledge about their particular preferences. This awareness can be used to develop, design, format, and deliver educational programs and resources that will motivate and stimulate students' acquisition, integration, and application of information and professional knowledge in an attempt to individualise instruction."

The paper "Are Learning Style Preferences of Health Science Students Predictive of Their Attitudes Towards E-Learning?" (by Ted Brown, et al., in Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, vol. 24, no. 4, 2009; pp. 524-43), reports on a study conducted with students enrolled in allied health programs at Monash University in 2006-2007. While the researchers concluded that knowing the learning styles of the students "can be used only to a limited extent as a predictor of students' attitudes towards e-learning. Nevertheless, educators should still consider student learning styles in the context of using technology for instructional purposes."

The paper is available at http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet25/brown.html.

The Australasian Journal of Educational Technology (AJET) [ISSN 1449-5554] is a refereed journal publishing research and review articles in educational technology, instructional design, educational applications of computer technologies, educational telecommunications, and related areas. For more information and back issues go to http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/.

ONLINE TEACHING TIPS

The September issue of eLearn Magazine has two articles from long-time online teaching practitioners that feature practical advice for new online instructors:

"10 Things I've Learned About Teaching Online"
By Michelle Everson, University of Minnesota
http://www.elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=best_practices&article=57-1

"Discussion Management Tips For Online Educators"
By Jo Macek, Anthem Education Group
http://www.elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=best_practices&article=59-1

eLearn Magazine is published by ACM (Association for Computing Machinery, Inc.), a not-for-profit educational association serving those who work, teach, and learn in the various computing-related fields. For more information, contact: eLearn magazine, eLearn Magazine ACM, 2 Penn Plaza, Suite 701, New York, NY 10121-07016 USA; Web: http://www.elearnmag.com/.

A SOCIO-TECHNICAL VISION OF SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING

"Universities currently outsource the marketing and distribution of their knowledge to publishers with little interest in their communities. If knowledge distributors who create no knowledge dominate its exchange, then the publishing tail is wagging the academic dog. . . . If universities let publishers kidnap their knowledge and hold them to copyright ransom, they fail their public duty of knowledge guardianship."

The September issue of First Monday concludes its two-part series "Reinventing Academic Publishing Online" (mentioned in the August 2009 issue of Infobits: http://its.unc.edu/TeachingAndLearning/publications/tlinfobits/CCM3_007929#4) with "A Socio-technical Vision." In this paper, authors Brian Whitworth and Rob Friedman present a "blueprint for change" in academe that proposes a "democratic online knowledge exchange, run by the academic many rather than the few." The paper is available at http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2642/2287.

First Monday [ISSN 1396-0466] is an online, peer-reviewed journal whose aim is to publish original articles about the Internet and the global information infrastructure. It is published in cooperation with the University Library, University of Illinois at Chicago. For more information, contact: First Monday, c/o Edward Valauskas, Chief Editor, PO Box 87636, Chicago IL 60680-0636 USA; email: ejv@uic.edu; Web: http://firstmonday.org/.

A MODEL FOR DETECTING STUDENT PLAGIARISM

Using their own experience as university instructors, authors Tracey Bretag and Saadia Mahmud (in "A Model for Determining Student Plagiarism: Electronic Detection and Academic Judgement," Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, vol. 6, no. 1, 2009), present a simple model for detecting student plagiarism. They discuss the shortcomings of electronic text-matching software tools, while providing suggestions on how the limitations can be lessened when combined with the instructor's manual analysis and "nuanced academic judgement." The paper is available at http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1076&context=jutlp.

The Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice [ISSN: 1449-9782], published by the University of Wollongong, is a bi-annual, peer-reviewed journal publishing papers that "add significantly to the body of knowledge describing effective and innovative teaching and learning practice in the higher education environment." For more information, contact: Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, University of Wollongong, c/o Centre for Educational Development and Interactive Resources, Northfields Avenue, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia; email: jutlp@uow.edu.au; Web: http://jutlp.uow.edu.au/.

HARVARD MAKES SCHOLARLY WORKS AVAILABLE

In early September Harvard University announced the public launch of DASH -- Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard -- an open-access repository of hundreds of scholarly works by Harvard faculty and researchers. "From Abu Ghraib to zooarchaeology, from American literature to the Zeeman effect, more than 1,500 items can be located in DASH today, with the number increasing every week."

For more information about DASH, see http://hul.harvard.edu/news/2009_0901.html.

To access DASH, go to http://dash.harvard.edu/.

TL Infobits -September 2009

Issue 39ISSN: 1931-3144

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Issue 39
ISSN: 1931-3144