OLA provides education through innovative and accessible methods. It has utilised television, radio, audio and video cassettes and computer-assisted learning packages. In 1995, OLA began to establish a presence on the World Wide Web.
The corporate information was quickly put up on the Web using a consultant, so that OLA was established with at least some information. It was not intended to be comprehensive. Containing only basic information about the Company, it was there simply to alert people to the OLA's existence. It was, to a large extent, merely electronic advertising. This was undertaken because OLA realised the importance of having a presence on the Web and the need for getting that presence established quickly.
As it was intended to be the core of OLA's Web site, the student information (including the Student Handbook) took longer to prepare, and was organised in-house after staff training. As the information would be updated regularly and expanded in the future, it was felt that having the necessary skills in-house was important. It also allowed OLA to have complete control over the site from deciding what information to put on the site right through to design and construction.
A number of matters were considered while planning the student information stage. The information would be aimed at potential students as well as current OLA students. The site needed to contain as much, if not all, the information that these people would require. Therefore the Handbook, the Library Guide and timetables were necessary, as well as information about the Student Association, an updates section for new information and links to other sites of use to students. Later, a section on Access and Equity was added, and most recently a Frequently Asked Questions list compiled by our student advisers.
Given the amount of information, the site had to be set up in a clear and easy-to-follow structure. The site should be set out simply with few graphics, as it would be an information source for a specialised audience. Low graphic content was also important with regards to the time it takes to download the pages.
The final stage of the web site is the provider information for staff at educational institutions which provide units or modules through OLA. This section was recently added and currently only contains the provider agreement. The plan for this section is to also include a calendar of relevant dates, examples of unit profiles and a proposal form for those wanting to offer new units or modules. As well as benefiting the provider institution, this section also allows interested students to see how OLA is organised and how it deals with its partner organisations.
The site has evolved as new material has been added, and was recently restructured resulting in the site that currently stands (see Figure 1).
The Handbook is what most students coming to the OLA Web site would want to read, so the link for this is now on the homepage. Similarly, the link to the new information section is also there as return visitors are likely to want to read that section first. Under the old structure, both these links were in the Student Information section.
The student information section was retitled Student Resources and the corporate (marketing) information was expanded and retitled "About OLA". This section needed to be more than just advertising - it needed to be an information source catering to the media and to researchers looking at education. It is important that those researching and writing about education and OLA are not only given the pertinent facts, but are also provided with information and opinions from within the Company as well as from without. Thus this section now includes all Media Releases and a Research and Reports subsection.
The Research and Reports subsection includes papers written by OLA staff as well as a link to the Open Learning Evaluation site established by the University of Melbourne's Centre for the Study of Higher Education after they had completed their study of OLA (Atkinson et al. 1996).
The Provider Information currently contains only the provider agreement, but will expand in the near future.
There were two pages of information that were of relevance to all three sections, being contact information and a list of OLA's provider institutions. These pages therefore have links from all three areas of information as well as from the What's New page.
The idea of a Student Usenet Newsgroup was dismissed due to difficulties regarding access (access being one of OLA's primary concerns). There was no way for OLA to guarantee that all students with Internet connection would have access to the newsgroup through their server. Using a Listserver was also dismissed as it could potentially result in students receiving hundreds of email messages each week. This might deter students from signing up as many would only be interested in occasionally reading a few of the messages.
We are intending to pursue a web-based discussion forum, modelled on the one currently being used by OLA's Information Technology students through OTEN (Rutherford 1996). This forum would allow students to pick and choose, downloading only those messages they wanted to read rather than having to wade through countless emails every day.
We intend to mediate the forum, with all messages being read at OLA before becoming publicly available. This would ensure that prank or defamatory messages would not become public, so students would only have relevant messages from which to choose.
It is planned to have the forum running before the end of 1996.
As part of OLA's Small-Medium Enterprise project, OLA identified a need for accessible information regarding enterprise training. As a result, OLA is planning to construct a Small-Medium Enterprise Web site. The site will act as a launching pad to courses offered not only through OLA, but through TAFE, universities and private providers around the country. There will be alphabetical lists of providers and courses including contact details, as well as a searchable index. Where available, there will also be links to the relevant institutions' Web sites.
It is estimated that this site will be operational in early 1997.
Web sites currently offering these resources are as follows:
OLA supported some of these developments through the awarding of Innovations and Quality Enhancement Scheme grants. These grants were awarded on the basis of proposals submitted by the institutions. Aside from units already online, the following projects have received grants and are currently in development:
Although grants are no longer to be awarded under this scheme, OLA is still keen for its providers to pursue web-based resources for units and modules offered through OLA. It is expected that these resources will continue to be developed and expanded into the delivery of teaching materials and study guides using the Web.
The Student Advisers have benefited from having the Student Handbook on the Web, in that they are able to direct enquirers to it. The print version of the handbook costs $9.95 and not all enquirers are willing to outlay that money when they are not even sure that they want to study through OLA. Thus, the on-line handbook gives them the opportunity to investigate what OLA has to offer without purchasing the handbook. Having the handbook on-line is especially useful during OLA's registration periods. Enquirers often leave things until the last minute and then discover that they are unable to obtain a handbook in time to register. Advisers can now direct these students to the on-line version, which includes a registration form that can be printed and sent in.
OLA realises that not all students currently have access to the Web, but also recognised that access will increase both through private connections and through greater public connections. Certainly Web use is significant enough to make a difference to the Company.
Most of OLA's provider institutions - certainly all the universities - have access to the Web. Thus, having information for them on our site is extremely useful.
OLA is committed to the concepts of access and equity by its very nature (that is, studying from home and no prerequisites), and so we are being careful to ensure that Internet access is not a necessity for our students. All the information on our Web site is available in other forms to students. Also, students without Internet connections at home or work can access it through local libraries. Such access is increasing. For example in Victoria, VICNET, a joint project of the State Library and RMIT, is expanding the number of public access points.
VICNET is working with public library services throughout Victoria on an ambitious plan to provide free public access to VICNET and the Internet in every library in Victoria. We are not stopping with libraries but hope to expand to also provide free public access locations in neighbourhood houses, community centres, health centres and so on.
Making information and materials available on the Web is providing students with yet another option - thus, in effect, expanding access to post-secondary education.
Thanks to Justine Clarke for her advice and assistance.
