Rethinking University Teaching

Teachers in higher education are slowly accepting the fact that they have to become more professional in their approach to teaching, matching their professionalism in research. The notions of quality audit and teacher appraisal are new, and in their existing forms ill-founded, but they represent a challenge that teachers will have to face. The book aims to prepare them for this: both to contribute towards a well-founded implementation of quality audits and appraisal, and to achieve their personal aims of improving their teaching and their students' learning. There is also a growing recognition that the technological media have the potential to improve student learning, or at least teach efficiency, and university teachers are looking for ways of increasing their understanding of what can be done with the new media, and how to do it. This book will inform them about what has been done and what is already known, helping them to think constructively and critically, and building toward a practical methodology for the design, development, and implementation of educational technologies. Part one explores students' learning, and what it is that they need from educational technology; part tow looks at individual teaching methods and media, including non-interactive media (lectures, print, audio, etc.), hypermedia (CD-ROM, etc.), and interactive media (simulations, modelling programs etc.); and part three discussed the design methodology, designing learning activities, setting up the learning context and maintaining quality.
Diana Laurillard is Professor of Educational Technology, and Pro-Vice Chancellor for Learning Technology and Teaching, at The Open University. She was a member of the National Committee for the Inquiry into Higher Education, chaired by Sir Ron Dearing.