Electronic Support Systems for teaching

[John Julian]

Open Learning Australia has been contracted by Open Net (the new Electronic
Support Service for students) to prepare a statement of requirements
document for a computer productivity tool to assist academics, teachers and
trainers with a specific range of administrative tasks - particularly
records management, assessment and results reporting.

The project team are collectively familiar with most of the existing
commercial solutions and we will be visiting a number of educational
institutions in the near future to discuss their experience with such
tools.  However we would be anxious to hear from anyone with suggestions or
experience as to how well (or otherwise) the solutions work. If you know of
a tool that you have particularly strong opinions about (good or bad) I
would welcome your comments.

In particular we are interested in systems that:
(1) maintain basic student data such as name, ID number, Course and subject;
(2) provide a means to collect and manage student results and track
progress through a course of study; and
(3) provide a range of reporting and statistical tools which allow the
lecturer or subject administrator to analyze the results database
(distributions, moderation etc.) and produce the data in a range of formats
such as graphs, tables or text-based reports.

Please respond to my personal Email address

jjulian@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au

My apologies if you receive multiple postings. This message has been sent
to 5 local addresses I thought would be relevant.

ie:
resodlaa@usq.edu.au,ateach-l@scu.edu.au,staff.development@jcu.edu.au,edtech-
aus@cleo.murdoch.edu.au,herdsa@listproc.anu.edu.au

If you cross-post or forward I would appreciate a note as to where it went.
If there is sufficient interest I would be happy to post a summary of the
main features of such systems when the research project is completed.





John Julian, Manager Technology and Communications
Open Learning Australia, 30 Collins St., Melbourne, 3000
Phone + 61 3 903 8920    Fax + 61 3 903 8966
E-Mail  jjulian@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au