Collaborative web tools to enhance efficiency and effectiveness in learning and teaching

Abstract

We identify some principles, and some practices, for enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of teachers using web-based, eLearning and eAdministration tools in a mostly campus-based learning environment. We consider the whole of a teacher's role, embracing the facilitation of learning, the administration of learning, and the assessment of students, with the aim of enhancing job satisfaction for the teacher, and depth of learning for the student. The key principles we seek in eLearning and eAdministration tools are simplicity, versatility and a decentralised, but collaborative, mode of operation which we illustrate through case studies of our own work and that of others. In this paper we review relevant learning and assessment models, explicate the key principles for supporting the teacher's role with web-based tools, and provide numerous illustrative examples.