An Interview with David Lowe
(“Inter” refers to the interviewer, “David” refers to David Lowe)
Inter:	We are speaking with David Lowe, who is teaching in the area of History in the Faculty of Arts. Welcome David.
David:	Thanks Mary.
Inter:	What is the philosophical rationale underpinning you're teaching, and what influences have shaped this philosophy?
David:	It's a desire for student to be able to engage in relationships between the past and the present. We are very conscious of the fact that there are lots of ongoing debates these days about matters that often become very politicised but they often have strong historical roots. Take for example, the big debate in recent years of the killing of aborigines. How many were killed? How many may have died naturally, and so on. Ongoing debates concerning the restitution of cultural artifacts, such as the restitution campaign to return the Elgin Marbles to Greece for example. These things are coming up in the public situations all the time, so one of the things that we would love to do in this unit is for students to be able to appreciate just how present the past is, in some of our issues that we place very high on our priorities in terms of cultural appreciations. Notions of whether we should have a particular relationship with episodes in the past, whether we should have any guilt or attachment to particular episodes. These are the kind of ideas that are kicking around in the background of what we are trying to do in this unit.
Inter:	So, they are the background influences, what sort of approach do you take to teaching though?
David:	In this one its very much based on the notion that students should be able to develop a capacity for self learning. They should be able to access lots of materials in an online environment. In other words, we can provide a sample, we can provide some guidelines for them but, the nature of this unit in particular is so, that they can stretch out because we are envisaging, a rapid blossoming of sources that students can access in relation to some of the key questions that we are asking them. So it's an encouragement for them to be able to blossom out in ways which also invite them to evaluate what they are meeting. They are going to meet different types of materials and frankly different quality of materials to some are going to be much better than others. So this branching out and this kind of developing an appreciation about how to evaluate electronic and other types of materials is one of the key things that we would like them to get into.
Inter:	Okay so what are the components of the online unit Great Debates and what is your educational rationale for each of them?
David:	Well there is obviously a very prominent DSO site for students and I should add from the outset that this is all being developed as we speak. This isn't a fixed beast by any means. In the early days we considered having a CD Rom which contained lots of material on it too but, at the moment we are coming back more to the idea of having a very substantive site with lots of links to electronic readings, lots of suggested hot links to certain sites containing some of the issues students are going to meet and of course a very prominent degree of interactivity, in the way in which student collaborate with each other. Collaboration is one of the key features that we like to develop, in some of the exercises and also the way in which they are assessed. As well as part of the component will be assessed on the online environment, so these are the kinds of key components, there is also a substantive component, which is a more formal more common assignment of written exercise. I suppose that is still part of it but yes, the quizzes is part of the online assessing environment that I mentioned. As well, as the collaborative efforts that leans towards an outcome in the case that we were thinking about. It is an outcome toward collaboration towards presenting a particular case, the politician might use for example, I mentioned beforehand the debate that rages about whether or not to return the Elgin Marbles and one of the exercises that we are envisaging, is for the students to compare for and against cases. So that a politician might be able to stand up and say, based on this information the marbles should be returned because XYZ and so forth. Another group of students might be preparing the case against that, so there are the kinds of situation that we are hoping to be able to deploy courtesy of the online environment.
Inter:	Okay, with the online quizzes do you use those mainly for self tests or are their grades attached to them?
David:	At the moment we are envisaging mostly self testing yes, again it's early days but the pilot that we have been looking at is a self assessing exercise. A quiz combining a combination of short answers and multiple choice type questions
Inter:	And do they get feedback immediately?
David:	Yes, yes.
Inter:	I see, now what design factors did you consider when you developed the wholly online unit?
David:	I think you start with the diverse nature of the cohort of students you expect. In our case we can't say that all of our expected students will be 19 year olds divided evenly between males and females. For example, it's a second and third level unit and we are hoping of course to catch students who might have formally studied it at Burwood, Geelong or in off campus mode and when you take into account the profile of those kind of cohorts, you've got to envisage a pretty wide spectrum of people. A pretty wide spectrum of skills that they bring, and levels of familiarity with, an online learning environment. So with that in mind it had to be pretty friendly, we didn't want to move to fast and too far down this track until we get a sense of how people are coping. So therefore, some of the leads that we have had have been some of those that have worked in the form of the First Class environment and for example. I've personally had some good experiences with students these were mostly second level students but, we're envisaging that second and third levels students should be able to better take this on as well. Commenting on each other's work submitting drafts in an online context and inviting comments from other students and then responding to those comments in a way which could strengthen their original arguments that kind of example as I say I think worked well over the last couple of years is something we would like to take a little bit further and a little bit more formally in this unit, that we are developing but it's a case of you know hastening slowly I think down this track as I say we are conscious of wanting this to appeal to a very broad and diverse range of students.
Inter:	Does that include international students?
David:	Possibly yes. Yes. It should be available to certainly students of Australian base but international students as well.
Inter:	Aha, in what specific ways have you used online multi media to help students learn?
David:	At the moment one of the, this is a unit that is divided into modules we designed it deliberately that way so that we have a degree of flexibility and so that more staff members might be brought on board occasionally we can take in and out a module occasionally depending on who's here who's enthused to do something and who's on leave and so forth. One of the modules that we are piloting is a module on historical narratives and film and that has prompted us to try and get clearly small chunks of film where we can obviously there is some copyright issues with that that we need to be very careful of so the notion of students being invited to look at the role of film in formulating historical interpretations means that you simply have to have simply small chunks of excerpts of film or maybe even people talking about film it's a medium that of course lends itself to having moving images of course on the screen and again there is a few problems with copyright that we are still trying to iron out but that is very much on the books otherwise we did envisage and we are still envisaging interviewing a couple of luminary historians on other types of issues that are going to form parts of other modules I mentioned the killing of Australian Aborigines debate it was in our mind to interview one of the key historians in that field and to have a talking head appearing on the screen as well. So there are a couple anyway.
Inter:	Just going back to the design aspect besides the design for the cohort what other sort of factors were you considering you mentioned you wanted to be friendly in what way exactly? Content wise, assessment wise?
David:	I think navigation wise in particular you know we are getting a lot of advice from IT people in the faculty and Learning Services and I think that in navigation around the site for students I think that that is the main requirement content wise I think yes but as I say we are hoping that students will stretch out beyond the bare base of it and we are hoping to provide lots of ways in which they can stretch out and evaluate the very sources but we are conscious of the fact that it is pretty early days in terms of the Faculty of Arts in learning in this environment perhaps we have been a little slow off the mark in comparison to some of the other faculties but some of the students will also be probably a little bit tentative I think the friendliness pertains in particular to navigational issues I think.
Inter:	Okay more so than content?
David:	More so than content I'd argue we hope that the content is quite challenging but, if navigation towards both content, assessment and levels of interactivity with staff and fellow students. They work in a fairly user friendly way then that was one of our main requirements.
Inter:	Okay so can you tell us in what ways you believe that the online environment has enriched students learning to date?
David:	To date I think the example that I mentioned before is one that I would hold up. I really have enjoyed in particular the ways in which some of the students have appreciated the chance to engage in each other's work. In a way that is non competitive but it also enables them to stand back a little bit from their own efforts and revisit them again. I mentioned the example of students, I think that you need to be a little bit careful here, these have been relatively small groups that have been able to do this once you get too big I don't think it works quite as well but with students of say with numbers up to about 30 may be dividing them into groups works after that. To be able to complete an assessment task which in the Faculty of Arts normally consists of some kind of writing a written piece and then to have some peer feedback on that piece. Online environment is perfect for this because you get very rapid feedback which everyone can see and so long as its setup in a way that is non threatening and non competitive, you know this is just an ongoing work in progress so that the original student doesn't feel any great qualms in attracting a bit of constructive criticism. Then that enables them to then go back and revisit their original piece and add to it or modify it or defend it and in each case that I have tried something like this, in other units the levels of feedback have been extremely positive. Students have loved the chance to do this they know full well that they can't submit a draft. You know the rule is that you can't submit a draft to your lecturer. Your lecturer won't read drafts instead they are getting their peers to comment on some of their earlier attempts at assessment.
Inter:	So they do actually submit drafts to their peers do they?
David:	Hmm I see. And, it's not just the way in which I use the assessment. That it's the initial piece that they submit, is assessed by me, but, also they way in which they respond to the comments on that is assessed by me as well.
Inter:	Okay you have touched a little bit on students' experiences there can you elaborate further on both teachers and students' experiences in this wholly online environment?
David:	I've met with some good examples. I think one of the dangers and again I have found this in some of the other units, is that you always get a core of incredibly keen students, while others will feel that their voices aren't being heard. Or they're too tentative early on to contribute much in an online discussion forum and therefore, they drop out even if they don't literally drop out of the unit, they can drop out of discussions. It's been a bit up and down for me. I think it's a learning curve for all of us, even the students themselves. I haven't had a diverse range for example. I haven't conducted quizzes before and I haven't gone further than the kind of steps that I described in the way of students commenting on each other's work, in the way of which students interact with their peers the only other things that I have tried have been like discussions. You know real time chats which have been useful.
Inter:	Do you have any students taking that up?
David:	Yes, again there is always a solid core who carry on through the semester whilst others drop away. That may be typical to the student behavior in many realms. I'm not sure that it's particular to the online environment, that was quite interesting and quite satisfying in some ways. I guess a more basic form of technology is audio streaming of lectures and so forth, has met with very good feedback. Most of the units that I have been associated with in recent years have had an audio streaming component. So that people can listen to lectures. Again a very positive feedback, on that score. They are usually accompanied with a Power point presentation too, so it's a fairly rich. So if you look at the lecture you get especially with off campus students who miss out on it that face to face kind of contact.
Inter:	How do you think you would like to develop your teaching environment in the future?
David:	Look, I think we are going down the right path what I would like to see and what most of my colleagues would like to see and this is probably what hasn't kicked in as fully as it might is the long anticipated time savings because most of this stuff, even though it promises, we are promised time savers down the track we are waiting for them to kick in. Maybe the design of self assessing quizzes is an example, that will be a real help but there is an awful lot of time surrounding both design and clearly the maintenance of an online design is an issue. Most of my colleagues and myself are very positive about the way things are going but we are looking for the time savers to kick in.
Inter:	But we will see whether that happens in the future thanks David.
David:	No Worries.
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