An Interview with Ian Robottom, Associate Professor from the Faculty of Education
(“Int” refers to Mary, the interviewer, and “IR” refers Ian Rowbottom)
Int:	I am interviewing Associate Professor Ian Robottom from the Faculty of Education. This case is called, 'The Online Case Studies Reconciling Teaching and Research'. Ian, what is the philosophical rationale underpinning your unit and what influences have shaped your teaching and learning?
IR:	The first thing I would like to make about this Mary is the fact that the unit we are referring to here is called Advancing Professional Development, its code is EXE731. This was one of our new suite of generic units in the Masters Program and as such it brought together staff who had in the past never worked together, from a range of different backgrounds, to address this generic topic of professional development. Not only was the group brought together for the first time for this unit, but also we were engaging the use of the new IT processes that were available for us in the University. This unit was developed from the ground up as an online unit. Now with that as a background, we decided to attempt to enact a relationship between theory and practice. The unit itself was not intending to present simply a set of readings of a theoretical nature to students, but also examples of professional development in practice, which together with the readings enabled students to think about the implications of theory for practice and vice-versa. Also that implications for theory coming out of instances of practice that they have engaged in themselves. A second point about the philosophical rationale underpinning this unit was the relationship between knowledge and research. We wanted to include in this unit the capacity for students to conduct case study research of their own and for that to find a place in the unit in two ways, both through their assessed assignments, but also in terms of making substantive contributions to further iterations of the unit if the case studies they produced were of an appropriate standard. In addition to that in terms of process we adopted iterative, collaborative processes of working together as a team, whereby after having divided the responsibilities of preparing the original material amongst the unit team members, we agreed to a process whereby each version of draft material would be collaboratively assessed, critiqued and appraised by other members in the unit team before it became final content within the unit. That process of collaborative critique was an important element of the unit. In terms of influences that shaped our views, we were fortunate in that the unit team was highly experienced. We had been involved at Deakin in distance education delivery for many years. In fact, when I think of the team now, many of the team members were twenty five year members of the university, so they were bringing a quarter of a century of experience in external or distance education to these Masters units. Several of us were founding members of Deakin University and had been involved in the Masters since its inception, the Masters having always and only been delivered through distance education. It amounted to quite a wealth of experience which I think was very helpful as we engaged in this process.
Int:	Why did you become involved in developing digital media in your units?
IR:	Our reasons for developing digital media in this unit were twofold. Firstly, it was conducted against a backdrop of university policy that was leading us unequivocally towards a consideration of the adoption of digital media in our courses, that's a university level policy direction, but also within the faculty. This unit was developed against a backdrop of rationalisation of the masters. We had moved from a situation where we had 130 different units in the schedule for masters and we were reducing that to less than half that, 40 or 50 units which created the scope for some renewal. So the rationalisation also led to a context whereby it was feasible to develop new highly resourced units and this meant that we were able to draw upon the opportunity and the resources to explore the possibility of using digital media. What did we do in the end? We always felt that the kind of material that we were offering, ought to be best presented using the media, represented the most natural form of usage for students. Obligatory readings for example, literature of the field, we presented in print form, because we felt students best engage readings by having the text in hardcopy print form. We didn't simply want to devolve the task of printing material to them by sending them a bunch of PDF files. So the readings are in a print form. However, we are trying to relate the literature of the field to instances of practice. We felt that the instances of practice was always going to be best presented in a digital way, in a multimedia case study format. So we sort to develop these multimedia case studies and present them digitally. It works for us well in two ways. Firstly, the digital forum or medium allows us to present the case studies in a very rich manner drawing upon a multimedia array of audio, still photos, moving images, examples of students' work and the like. The second way in which it has worked well for us, is that it has created a needed flexibility for us, in that it is quite a straightforward process to expand our range of case studies of practice in this unit, drawing from completed projects, often that we have been involved in ourselves, and do to that through the digital medium as opposed to producing a lot of textual information. It needs to be said too, engagement of the case studies requires choices by the students. We now present something like ten or eleven case studies of which students are required to engage only two. It did not seem common sense to present print material relating to eleven case studies when the students were only going to choose any two of those. It is a more efficient medium to present them digitally, as well as being the most appropriate medium.
Int:	Ian, you have touched a little bit on the design considerations when you were speaking about print use and so on, what other design considerations were involved in creating the CD-ROM? Also, could you elaborate on the ways that students contribute to course content?
IR:	The main design considerations involved in creating the CD-ROM for the unit Advancing Professional Development, emerged once we had, as a team, discussed and explored over a period of time, the best structure for the unit. In the end we decided to present the unit in two distinct parts. The first part is a collection of readings relating to the field, together with our own interpretively developed construction of the meaning of this literature. That is, a set of commentaries on the contemporary literature of the field. This represented our perspective on developing theories of the field. Those readings we felt, were best presented in print form. Part two of the course, comprises the collection of multimedia case studies and we always felt that that was best presented in the digital form. It enables students to engage a range of instances of professional practice in their field and thereby give them the capacity to relate those instances of practice to the theoretical perspectives presented in part one. In developing the CD-ROM we felt that it cohered very closely with this preferred structure that we had, whereby part one related mainly to theoretical considerations and part two related mainly to contemporary instances of practice, all of this woven together with the philosophical perspective that professional development in the field ought to entail, to some extent, an interaction, a critical review of the relationship between theory and practice at all times. There is the capacity for students to contribute to this unit in this way. One of the assignments, the second assignment for this unit, entails, for students, the development of a proposal for conducting a professional development activity in their own professional workplace. In developing that proposal we require students to draw on both the theoretical considerations presented in the literature reviewed in part one of the course, and the instances of professional development presented in the range of case studies in part two of the course. However, if students feel confident enough to put that proposal into practice and to conduct a professional development activity in their own professional context, then we encourage them to develop a multimedia case study, presentation of that professional development instance in practice and submit that to us on a CD, with the promise that we would consider that for inclusion in future iterations of the course. Now so far we have had two or three students do that and this is quite a neat idea because it enables us to draw directly on the professional, contemporary professional experience of our clients in the field. Bear in mind, our clients in this unit are all mid career professional teachers, often in positions of responsibility in their schools. It enables this automatic self renewal of the unit in terms of adding additional instances of case studies, as instances of professional development to the unit, drawing on students' work. I think this is an idea we want to continue with.
Int:	So it keeps the unit topical and fresh?
IR:	It does Mary, and it also broadens the range of practical instances that we have on offer for the students as well. Our students come from quite a broad range of professional backgrounds, both within schools, government education bodies, universities and also increasingly within the corporate world, where people are engaged in offering education and professional development programs in workplaces.
Int:	How did the digital media on the CD contribute to the internationalisation of the subject?
IR:	The issue of how the digital media in our unit contributes to internationalisation of the subject and of the masters program was something I am quite interested in as co-ordinator of the Masters program. Firstly, I think we are being guided down that pathway by university level policies of internationalising the curriculum and we need to give a lot of thought to how we go about internationalising the curriculum with an eye to the literature to do with internationalisation, globalisation, colonisation and the like. Recent experiences I've had internationally, where we have been talking with potential partners in Dubai and Malaysia who are interested in our Masters program, in those discussions it has become very clear that if we were to offer our Masters program in those settings, that they would value the opportunity to have included into the suite of case studies in part B with this unit that I am referring to, at least one or more case studies of professional development within the country concerned, either Dubai or Malaysia. I think the use of the digital component of this unit, together with the philosophical view that we have of trying to relate theories to practice, it makes sense within the internationalisation context to draw instances of practice for those purposes, from the international context within which the Masters is being implemented. I have had recent discussions in both Dubai and Malaysia about setting up processes by which we could do that. We already have within this unit, Advancing Professional Development, some international instances. I have completed a project funded by AusAid, where I worked for over a two year period in South Africa, actually in post apartheid South Africa, and that is relevant because the political context at the time shaped what we did there, completed that project and developed a multimedia case study on environmental education professional development in South Africa and that has taken its place within this unit. Similarly a project in Colombia is represented in this same unit. We already have two case studies that are international but we are seeking to expand that, particularly with an eye to working with our international partnerships as we seek to offer our Masters program overseas.
Int:	Ian, can you tell us about the teachers' and learners' experiences of the CD and what impact your teaching and use of digital media might have had on your students' learning?
IR:	In terms of teachers' and learners' experiences of the CD we certainly had issues in the early days. This unit has now been offered for three years and I think in the first two years it is fair to say that we had a problematic experience with the delivery system. We began with First Class, then Top Class and now WebCT Vista. While WebCT Vista seems to have settled down and offered a reliable service in delivering the online component of the course this year, the same cannot be said of the experience in the first two years. Many of the students reported issues with the… complaints really, let's be frank, the complaints that they had about the unit and about the use of the CD were related to the difficulties we were having with the delivery system. I think those things are in the past and we have had a good experience this year with WebCT Vista and when it is delivered reliably, and students can get access when and where they wish, the response has been very positive. A number of people have responded verbally and in writing about the expansion of their view of practice that these case studies afford. They appreciate both the medium, the fact that the case studies are presented in multimedia form as opposed to simply text form, and also the diversity that we have drawn upon in presenting these case studies. Overall, the impact has been decidedly positive. I mentioned a moment ago I had just been to Dubai for negotiations about our Masters there, and I can say that a key feature that lay behind their interest in our Masters, was the fact that it was online, partly at least, and it included this range of instances which potentially would include instances drawn from the Dubai context. The provision for including multimedia case studies on the CD-ROM to be part of the taught content of the course, was in fact an issue that was perceived very positively by our prospective partners in the Middle East.
Int:	Do you have any thoughts on how you might like to further develop the unit, Ian?
IR:	It is clear from what I have said already, that if we are thinking in terms of further development of the unit, it would be along the lines of expansion of the number and quality of the case studies that we have for the part B of the course. Clearly we need to maintain the contemporary nature of the theoretical considerations that we address in part A of the unit, but the interesting elements of this unit are the range and quality, diversity and contextual relevance of the case studies and I would certainly want to continue with that. It gives us a good opportunity to enact that second philosophical point, that I mentioned in the introduction, about the opportunities that the unit has, or the intention of the course team to reconcile knowledge and research, as well as theory and practice. By research in this context, I am referring to the case study research that gives rise to the multimedia case studies to be included in the unit. I am hoping that we can get faculty and perhaps university funding to carry out some of these small scale case study research projects that are worthwhile in their own right, in terms of how they might contribute to our understandings of professional development in the field, but also as an important, if secondary outcome, that they would serve directly the improvement of the taught units. There would be a direct input from the research into the taught units, thereby linking our teaching and research in a direct fashion.
Int:	Is there anything else you would like to say in reference to this case Ian?
IR:	Only that I am currently involved in lodging two grant applications for research with our prospective partners in Malaysia, which if it comes off, will be interesting in its own right, but again, we have had in mind from the word go with these proposals, that the conduct of the research may well cement opportunities for teaching collaborations with our respective masters programs here and at the Science University of Malaysia as well as our research partnerships, along the same lines of linking directly research and teaching. It will be interesting to see how that goes and I hope at our next interview Mary, I will be able to report on the outcome of that linkage.
Int:	Okay, thanks very much Ian.
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