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© 2016, IGI Global. All rights reserved. This chapter explores the difficulties surrounding the credentialing of open learning through an analysis of policies and practices relating to recognition of prior learning (RPL) in the Australian higher education sector. Here, credentialing encompasses both RPL for credit, where we ask to what extent there is a hierarchy of value placed on prior learning; and RPL for access where the notion of 'meritocracy' is foregrounded. The main argument is that, in the context of the Australian higher education sector, and possibly well beyond, RPL is more likely to be operationalised for strategic reasons relating to competitive university positioning within the sector, than for pedagogic motivations. As a result, equity considerations-especially for the most disadvantaged students-are further marginalised. It is one thing to develop processes through which open learning facilitates the production of knowledge, but another for this knowledge to be recognised by the Academy.

As the second largest and most decentralised state in mainland Australia, Queensland possesses population and geographical characteristics that produce unique challenges to the health and resilience of communities outside of its metropolitan centres. Research gaps are apparent in the absence of a comprehensive examination of the unique needs of various regional communities and of health professionals servicing these communities. Significant opportunity exists to integrate digital, innovative and flexible solutions into the provision of health and mental health care services to regional areas, yet little systematic evaluation or attempts at resource dissemination exist. This presentation introduces a newly formed team of researchers from clinical health and mental health backgrounds, as well as experts in digital technologies and online learning systems. It will describe a program of research that represents a consolidation of expertise, collaborations and projects that is uniquely placed to shed light on the health and wellbeing issues of regional communities in Southern Queensland and make meaningful inroads towards amending these. Specifically, it will provide an overview of our program of research that aims to identify unique, local health and mental health needs, as well as building upon these findings to develop and disseminate multi-level assessments, interventions and resources targeting various health and mental health problems at the individual, family and community level. The current program has the potential to bridge significant gaps in locally appropriate health support, resources, and services for regional communities.

Higher Education institutions face a challenge: how to transform traditional learning and teaching to create enhanced learning for current digital age students. In some universities this challenge is acute - particularly in those Universities that focus on blended and flexible learning (BFL), and distance education (DE) approaches. Many universities have emphasised the development of leadership capacity. From 2008 to 2011, utlising a partnership research grant funded by DEHub, Charles Sturt University and Massey University studied their approaches to fostering change in blended and flexible learning and DE. The study research question was: What do the strategies and activities designed to foster change in blended and flexible learning and distance education developed at Charles Sturt University (Australia) and Massey University (NZ) help us to understand about learning leadership?

The authors recently completed a funded research project in learning and teaching in higher education during which dilemmas in method choice emerged. This showcase unpacks the research process undertaken drawing on the analytical framework devised by Buchanan & Bryman (2007) in their consideration of the field properties that shape method choice in organizational studies. It considers the 'wicked issues in situating theory in close-up research' Trowler (2012, p. 278) in a study conducted within a field of practice where funding bias supports empirical and descriptive studies congruent with improving the quality of learning and teaching, leadership capacity building and deliverables of use to the sector. This theory-method trajectory created a narrow space within which discursive and argumentative research problems might be pursued. Getting the 'balance right' in the case of our study was partially vested in methodology – but we came to the view that whilst epistemological and methodological clarity was important, struggling with theory-method and data-theory trajectories remained central to the development of critically engaged applied research.

This Colloquium will provide an opportunity for participants to explore largely unchartered territory. It offers valuable insights into the real-life challenges facing first-time distance learners and the difficulties for tertiary institutions in meeting students' needs in today's digitally connected and socially wired world. The Colloquium is framed in the wider context of growing concerns about attrition and completion rates of distance learners and is informed by a joint Massey University and Charles Sturt University research project designed to investigate the experiences of first-time distance learners from their own perspectives. It will be hosted by the project leader, Professor Mark Brown who has 20 years of leadership experience in distance education.

The Spaces for knowledge generation: a framework for designing student learning environments for the future project has been funded via an Australian Learning and Teaching Council Priority Projects Grant and aims to address the need to create learning spaces that are based on strong design principles, informed by student needs, with the aim of producing forward-looking, flexible and sustainable Learning Spaces. Integral to the process is fostering the adoption of teaching practices to support student-directed learning and knowledge production. Longer-term outcomes include strategic cultural change to university practices and physical changes to campuses to advance learning and teaching.

The term 'virtual communities' has increasingly been applied to communication networks in which the participants focussed on a common topic are not located in the same geographical place, but are distributed across the globe. Unfortunately the term seems to have almost as many definitions and descriptions as the 'traditional' communities of place, and arguments still emerge as to what is and is not an online community. Yet it is important that we have at least a clear working definition, even if we amend or reject this subsequently. We cannot begin to clarify how online communities actually function, nor compare their successes and failures to the operations of a physical 'on-site' community, if we cannot agree what constitutes such a community, and by definition, what does not. This is not as easy as it may seem. The difficulty is that 'community' appears to mean different things to different groups of people, some of whom even deny that there is such a concept, or that it is a useful way of thinking. Though most early work related to the concept of community as a physical territory where residents interact, there was also a contrasting view of community as 'an interactional field held together by the human need to interact with other human beings' (Allen, 1993, p.156). Due to the ability to utilise the internet to create abstract places (virtual offices, hybrid libraries, online work spaces, and spaces for peer-to-peer interactive games), representations of the self (online identities), and abstract interactions (with other identities and with automated tasks), (Streibel, 1998) it is this latter view of community which has come to be applied to online social networks. This is perhaps unfortunate, as an increasing number of formal and non-formal online communities are being utilised to sustain some very meaningful and substantial learning support activities for learners in higher education.

Tutoring online refers to the process of tutoring within an online virtual environment or networked environment where teachers and learners are separated by time and space. These online environments usually involve the use of learning management systems (other names in use, see and link to learning environments pages) such as Moodle, Sakai, WebCT, Blackboard. Online tutors often determine the culture and tone of the online learning environment. Tutoring is also referred to as e-moderation and facilitation to achieve goals of independent learning, learner autonomy, self-reflection, knowledge construction, collaborative or group based learning, online discussion, transformative learning and communities of practice (Salmon, 2004; Benson, 2001; Mezirow, 2000; Schon, 1987; Wenger, 1998). These goals of moderation are based on principles of constructivist or social-constructivist principles of learning. E-moderation is a term synonymous with tutoring online. Peer tutoring involves peers within a course/subject tutoring each other for the mutual benefit of learning an area of study.

Outcomes By the completion of the workshop participants will be able to: • Recognise the distinct characteristics of a learning-oriented assessment task • Determine the appropriateness of learning-oriented assessment for their own context • Design a learning-oriented assessment task for a subject they are currently teaching • Examine a model for transforming and leading change in higher education through learning-oriented assessment • Explore potential avenues for transforming and leading change in assessment in the university setting.

This paper examines a project that encourages cross-cultural communication among teachereducation students through online discussion and project-based learning. An authentic case was presented to eleven students (divided into two groups) who volunteered to participate in the project over one semester. The case focussed on the development of a website by the two groups which would provide information to local Hong Kong students visiting the University of Wollongong on an intensive English immersion programme. The students were encouraged to seek advice from their HKIEd mentor and UOW advisor via synchronous and asynchronous communication tools available in the Blackboard Learning Management System. A development-based research approach was utilised for the project and perceptions were collected from the students, mentors and advisors using reflective journals, video-interviews, focus groups and the final completed project.

This paper outlines the progress to date of a project to compile, analyse and share examples of innovative online assessment activities using; online testing; teamwork and collaboration; simulations and role plays, and dialogue with experts and across cultures. The aim of this research is to provide teaching academics and educational developers with examples of assessment strategies that have been successfully applied in higher education, and to derive a number of key principles about online assessment that will be useful for future research. The project involves case studies from two Australian universities, which have been used to develop an initial set of eight exemplars and analysed to identify commonalities and differences. In the next phase of the project, these will be shared with teaching staff from two Hong Kong Universities, who will be asked to assess the applicability of the assessment designs and approaches to their teaching contexts.

This chapter introduces the idea of networked learning environments and argues that these environments provide the totality of surrounding conditions for learning in digital networks. It provides illustrative vignettes of the ways that students appropriate networked environments for learning. The chapter then examines the notion of networked learning environments in relation to the idea of infrastructure and infrastructures for learning and sets out some issues arising from this perspective. The chapter suggests that students and teachers selectively constitute their own contexts and that design can only have an indirect effect on learning. The chapter goes on to argue that design needs to be located at the meso level of the institution and that a solution to the problem of indirect design lies in refocusing design at the meso level and on the design of infrastructures for learning.