It’s all on the Web…isn’t it? The University of Queensland Library’s Innovative Support for Teaching and Learning.

Deborah Turnbull, Anne Horn, Michael Fagg

University of Queensland Cybrary

STUDENTS

Changing Student Expectations

• Between 1987 and 2001 the proportion of students in the 20-24 year age group has risen from 29% to 34%, largely reflecting an increase in higher degree study and duration of first degree study.

• There has been a 417% increase in postgraduate coursework enrolments and 164% increase in higher degree research.

Changing Student Expectations

• Students– Are making increasing

contributions to the cost of their education

– Spent less time on campus and more time working in paid employment

– Undertook an increasing number of activities that competed with the demands of university.

– Were less likely to spend time on campus

– Increasingly found it difficult to become motivated to study

Higher Education Students by Type of Enrolment, 1996-2000

165000

170000

175000

180000

185000

190000

195000

1996 1998 2000

PartTimeStudents

780008000082000

84000860008800090000920009400096000

1996 1998 2000

ExternalStudents

http://www.dest.gov.au/highered/statistics/timeseries/'TBL 2'!B1

Masters Students 1979-2000

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

1979 1989 1999 2000

Research

Coursework

http://www.dest.gov.au/highered/statpubs.htm#time

Higher Education Graduate Certificate Students 1985-2000

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

1985 1990 1995 2000

Grad Certificate

http://www.dest.gov.au/highered/statpubs.htm#time

Our Student range…TradBorn 1925-1945

BoomersBorn 1946-1964

Gen XBorn 1965-1980

MillennialsBorn 1980-2002

Slogan “Keepers of

the Grail” “Thank God, its Monday”

“Work to Live”

“Upcoming Optimists”

TechTech Unsure and Unsure and resistantresistant

Willing to Willing to learnlearn

Techno Techno SavvySavvy

TechnologicallTechnologically Superiory Superior – – Expect “E-Expect “E-

everything”everything”

Feeling toward supervisors

Respectful of authority

Non-authoritarian

Dislike close supervision

Respectful of Traditionalists

Provide Stable environment

Personal challenges

Feedback Structure

Adapted from: http://www.etsu.edu/edc/EDC%20Training%20Handouts/When%20Generations%20Collide%20final.ppt

10 Attributes Information-age (Millennial) mindset

1. Computers aren’t technology2. The Internet is better than TV3. Reality is no longer real4. Doing is more important than knowing5. Learning more closely resembles Nintendo than logic6. Multitasking is a way of life7. Typing is preferred to handwriting8. Staying connected is essential9. There is zero tolerance for delays10. Consumer and creator are blurring

» Jason Frand, “The Information Age Mindset: Changes in students & Implications for Higher Education,” EDUCAUSE Review 35, no.5 (September/October 2000):15-24

Millennials…

STAFF

Age-sex profile of academics by current duties term, 1995

Academics with tenured terms Academics with limited terms

“Academics had an older age profile than people in other occupations.”1

1. ABS: Australian Social Trends 1997Education - Education & Work: Academics -- http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/dd091f79d0d8ac5aca2569bb00164f6b?OpenDocument

How old are you?

1. Everything that’s already in the world when you’re born is just normal;

2. Anything that gets invented between then and before you turn thirty is incredibly exciting and creative and with any luck you can make a career out of it;

3. Anything that gets invented after you’re thirty is against the natural order of things and the beginning of the end of civilization as we know it until it’s been around for about ten years when it gradually turns out to be alright really.

Apply this list to movies, rock music, word processors and mobile phones to work out how old you are…. http://www.douglasadams.com/dna/19990901-00-a.html

Use of IT by Academics

• http://www.dest.gov.au/highered/otherpub/academic_work.htm

• Skepticism about use of IT and the educational benefits– Time– Increased work load– Pedagogy

Flexible Learning/Delivery

Flexible Learning

• Students now want to choose how, where, and when they learn, and greater flexibility of service delivery facilitates this independent user-centred student learning.

• Flexible learning often requires innovative technological solutions and students now expect web access to a wide variety of course materials (eg. Exam papers, lecture notes, journals, books, etc.).

Issues with Flexible Learning / Delivery

• Study options– Part time– External– Graduate Certificate,

Coursework Masters, etc. • Student range

– Age– IT Skills

• Staff– Age– IT Skills

“There is clear evidence that flexible learning in most forms requires additional resources: staff time and instructional design, technical, and administrative supports……. E-learning can be flexible or inflexible depending on how the instruction is designed; Flexible learning should be seen as a means not an end to quality learning. ”

•Chen, D. (2003). Uncovering the Provisos behind Flexible Learning. Educational Technology & Society, 6(2), 25-30, Available at http://ifets.ieee.org/periodical/6-2/3.html (ISSN 1436-4522)

Flexible Delivery

Flexible Learning Flexible Delivery

• Flexible delivery is the term used to describe means by which facilitation of effective, student-centred learning may be implemented (such as methods to deliver course content in new and novel ways).

• Flexible delivery includes the provision of resources and the application of technologies to create, store and distribute course content and enrich communications to engender more effective learning.

UQ Cybrary

• In an ever-changing technological world the University of Queensland Library provides programs and services which are integrated tools for lifelong learning, problem based teaching, and cutting edge research.

The Cybrary Website

•More than just a website, the Cybrary home page is the primary starting point for many of our clients to access our services.

– March 2003 the website recorded 3,101,291 successful requests! The busiest day this year has been March 11th with 146,611 requests.

• Last year the website was accessed by over 440,000 different computers

Making Learning Mobile

One of the key ICT strategies of the UQ Cybrary is enabling our clients to access information resources anywhere and anytime.

ie. At their point of need.

Eg. Students and staff can connect their own notebook computers to the network in branch libraries in a variety of ways.

Laptops @ UQ

Wireless technology is now available for the home as well as the office. Next generation protocols promise speeds of up to 54Mb/s

Gartner group predict a 23% increase in the adoption of wireless technologies in the workplace during 2003

“Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected.”

– William Plomer (1903-1973)

Computing In Your Lap

The next generation of laptop computers may not even need a keyboard!

•Already available from vendors (HP, Acer)

•Retail for around AUS$3400

New kinds of mobile devices

How about a phone that is also a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)?

Or a laptop that “reads” my handwriting?

Or digital ink and paper?

Which leads us to…..

You don’t see the feet madly paddling and you often don’t see the technology madly paddling to make “seamless interface” a reality!

Paddling Feet 1: Authentication & Proxying

Like many universities, much of the authorisation and authentication that we do for our clients takes place at our proxy servers or at the internet “border”.

One such service that we operate is called EZ-Proxy. This service is used transparently for products available through the UQ Cybrary web site

h t t p : / / w w w . u s e f u l u t i l i t I e s . c o m

Paddling Feet 2: Broadband & Beyond

High-speed internet access is becoming almost a common-place thing in many Australian homes.

A recent survey by the Bureau of Statistics determined that more than 4.4 million homes had access to the internet!

Matching this growth has been the

increasing number of subscribers with

permanent or non dial-up connections,

with around 470,000 subscribers at the

end of March 2003.

Just because it’s

possible doesn’t

mean it’s legal!

It’s all free on the web?• Why is it there?

– Who’s paying? Libraries• Why isn’t it there?

– Who’s going to digitise it?– Who’s going to pay for it?

• When is it going to be there?– What’s the profit?

• Is it ever going to be there?– Does it have to be?– Web a convenient print

delivery medium?• Digital ink, digital paper

• Who’s going to keep it there?– Who owns it?– Who’s going to store it

indefinitely?

•“E” everything is still not a reality, but at the same time a lot more information is provided electronically regardless of form.

•To assist students the Library has positioned itself as a vital gateway, an innovator of electronic delivery and a trainer in effective access and use of information.

So where are we?Are there new paths to follow in

relation to flexible delivery?

Paddling Feet 3: Legislative Changes

• Two key environmental changes have opened up new possibilities for making material available via the web.

• The Digital Agenda copyright reforms

• Broadband internet access

Digital Agenda copyright reforms

• Educational institutions who who are licensed can now make available digitally, certain copyright material originally obtained in a non- digital format.

• That is material that has traditionally been photocopied, plus recordings from television and radio.

“We have lots of information technology. We just don’t have any information.”

Digitization of copyright print material• One chapter or one reasonable portion of a book.

• Only one digital copy of a chapter can be communicated online by an institution.

• Access to digital copies must be restricted to the staff and students of the institution (passwords) and copyright notices must be provided.

– By setting up a central repository for digitised print material the library can ensure that the amount of material copied from any one work stays within the copyright requirements

Radio and TV broadcasts

• Since 1990 recordings have been made under the Screenrights license.

• Before the digital agenda reforms recordings could not be accessed digitally (i.e. streamed via the web)

• This is now possible as long as the stream is restricted to staff and students of the institution (passwords) and copyright notices are provided.

How Libraries are making the provision of streamed offair

recordings easier.• Just like with printed material libraries make an

ideal central repository where resources can be shared.

• Unlike print material you can make as many copies as you like, but all copies must be counted in the Screenrights survey. – Accessing the library copy takes away the hassle of

record keeping and making sure the requirements of the copyright act are fulfilled.

.

For years moving large media files across congested networks and slow modems

made video streaming rather problematic..

But then came broadband

• While university networks have been fast enough to deliver digital video for a number of years the 56k modem has always been a barrier to off campus access

• The growing rate of broadband access is increasingly making the true flexible delivery of video recorded from TV

Thinking about future implications makes all the difference

The short term

• Standards need to be developed in relation to video streaming. – Students can’t be expected to

be downloading a new player every time they want to view a programme.

• Will Media Player become the new Acrobat Reader?

• Technology is changing daily. To which one do you commit?

• Commercially purchased analogue video can not be digitized without the copyright owners permission. – This existing material is still

widely used. – Libraries will have to support

both analogue and digital collections for many years to come.

Long Term

• With developments in video streaming, wireless technology and broadband, access to library audio/visual material may become completely remote.– Broadband still an issue – User preference? Totally Virtual or a choice?– Licenses and Copyright– Digital policing will also become more prominent

• It’s possible, but is it legal? (MP3 case, Uni of Tasmania)

• How do you provide assistance when the space becomes virtual?

Recording digitally

• Technology now makes it possible to record directly in digital formats ensuring quality and making programs readily streamable.

• Programs can be stored on DVD or hard disk.

The End