The 'Gourmet' Sausage Factory: Keeping It Human

Abstract

Whilst tertiary institutions have and continue to invest heavily in the technological aspects of online Teaching & Learning (T&L), there does not appear to have been a commensurate investment in the ‘human’ aspects of the utilising the technology.  Despite the broad recognition that teaching & learning materials need to be adapted for and to the onscreen medium, little attention appears to have been paid thus far to the actual people who are delivering it – who equally need to ‘adapt themselves’ to that medium, in order to maximise the benefit of the technology by maximising the human communication skills of the people using the online medium – as distinct from the technical skills required to drive and deliver the bits and bytes.

The Redelivery Initiative was a direct response to that notion.  This paper details that part of the process involving the professional development of academics specifically in and specifically for the digital, online, T&L context, in order to both illuminate and maximise the potential and opportunities afforded by the technology