L7 3 1

=Teaching staff are provided with support resources (including training, guidelines and examples) for designing, developing, and delivering learning activities that actively engage students. =

Evidence
The Australian Council for Education Research (ACER) identifies that, ‘Student engagement is defined as students’ involvement in activities and conditions that are linked with high-quality learning. A key assumption is that learning outcomes are influenced by how an individual participates in educationally purposeful activities. While students are seen to be responsible for constructing their own knowledge, learning is also seen to depend on institutions and staff generating conditions that stimulate student involvement.’ http://ausse.acer.edu.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=13&Itemid=8

The ACER’s AUSSE survey of student engagement (2009) revealed that 12.5 per cent of first year students ‘never’ receive timely feedback on their work, 46.7 per cent never discuss their ideas from class with their teachers, and 70 per cent have never worked with teaching staff outside of coursework requirements. All this is on a background of research that shows that the contact that students have with staff are among the most powerful influences on positive learning outcomes. http://www.acer.edu.au/media/2624/

Teachers need to be conversant with current research and theory and familiar with the complexities of human interactions with ICT, so that as users they are not detached from students. Teachers and learners need to be cognisant of their embodiment in technology relations that integrates knowing acting and being. Such embodied knowing opens understandings of the mind-body/machine nexus (Dall’Alba and Barnacle, 2005).

Resources
Milne & White (2005) collect together twenty-three sets of e-learning quality guidelines from an array of geographical regions. Such guidelines, or something like them, should be part of the support offered to staff by their organizations. Staff need guidelines, and examples of good practice.

http://schoolforge.org.uk/index.php/Effective_eLearning_through_Collaboration