Gray, Janice --- "Teaching Excellence In The New Millennium Interviews With Professor Michael Adams And Ms Irene Nemes" [2001] UTSLawRw 11; (2001) 3 University of Technology Sydney Law Review 147

Teaching Excellence In The New Millennium Interviews With Professor Michael Adams And Ms Irene Nemes

Janice Gray[1]

Introduction

THE TRANSITION from studenthood or professional practice to academia is not necessarily an easy one for all who undertake it. Whilst many think it will be simple, experience demonstrates that effective law teaching requires skill and flair. Unfortunately, where the adage prevails, ‘that some do, and those who cannot, teach’, that skill and flair is often overlooked.

In the last two decades or so most Australian universities have made concerted efforts to redress the view that teaching is not a valued skill. Indeed, many have set up teaching and learning centres in various guises. These centres generally offer assistance with the programming, teaching, assessing and evaluating of courses, as well as offering short workshops and opportunities to gain postgraduate qualifications in higher education. Most universities, if not all, also have deliberately incorporated teaching contributions into the criteria for the promotion of academics.

This trend towards a genuine recognition of effective teaching has been reflected in the development of awards for excellence in teaching at the university level.

Awards of this nature began in individual universities but took on national significance when, in 1997, the Australian Universities’ Teaching Committee (AUTC), a federally funded body, established an award scheme with lucrative financial rewards for those judged as outstanding. It is possible that the AUTC scheme, together with the university teaching award schemes in individual universities, developed, in part, to redress a long-established bias towards research. That is not to imply that research is no longer valued. Indeed, research is probably valued more than ever, particularly given that university funding is directly linked to research output in the form of publications, but it is to say that the weightings between teaching and research have been rejigged.

While research is becoming increasingly more important, it is not doing so at the expense of teaching, as once it might have. In short, in order to meet performance standards and promotion criteria, academics today must be able to demonstrate skill and expertise in teaching as well as research.[2] The stakes have been raised in both areas.

Bearing in mind the emerging recognition of teaching, the following paper seeks to explore the experiences and views of two legal academics, who have recently been adjudged as stellar performers, both in their own universities and nationally. They are Professor Michael Adams, who holds a chair in corporate law at the University of Technology, Sydney, and Ms Irene Nemes, a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of New South Wales.

Oral interviews were conducted with both academics and their responses form the basis of what follows.[3] Initially, it was thought that this paper might take the form of direct transcription, at least in large part, but praxis and theory don’t always coalesce and this was yet another example. Responses were often too long and raised such a range of issues that they would not comfortably fit the initially envisaged format. Hence, it was decided to paraphrase, summarise, synthesise and directly quote, using the focus questions as the framework. If the paper that follows is in any way bland that is most assuredly the fault of the author rather than the interviewees.

What awards in teaching excellence have you won?

MICHAEL

In 1989, Michael joined the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) as a senior tutor and in 1992, the year following the scheme’s inception, he won a UTS excellence in teaching award.[4] In 1999 he was nominated by UTS for the national teaching awards but was not shortlisted, believing his application, among other things, was marred by the use of too many acronyms, which made it unintelligble to a wide audience. He was nominated again in 2000 and won the category of Law and Legal Studies (one of the six categories under the scheme). As part of his prize he received $40,000, payable to UTS but for his use. In the Law and Legal Studies category, the only other shortlisted candidate was Irene Nemes.

The scheme also provides for a Prime Minister’s award, which is given to the most outstanding of all category finalists and carries an additional prize of $30,000. This went to a finalist from one of the other categories.

Michael was keen to record how enjoyable he found celebrating teaching with about 100 other people at the Awards in Canberra. He noted that they all were genuinely committed to teaching and that their enthusiasm, passion, and caring for students were common features. He observed that many were also scholars with good publication records, suggesting that good teaching and good research are not mutually exclusive. To Michael it is ‘bizarre’ that UTS produces a research report but not a teaching report.

IRENE

Irene joined the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in 1994, coming from the University of Sydney, where she taught criminal law. She won a Vice Chancellor’s award for excellence in teaching at UNSW in 2000, where she has taught legal research and writing and, more recently, criminal law. Subsequent to her success in the UNSW teaching excellence awards, she was advised by the Pro Vice Chancellor, Education, that, with her consent, she was to be one of the three candidates nominated by UNSW for the AUTC national award scheme in 2000. Whilst the scheme provides for six categories based on six different discipline groupings, each university is allowed only three nominations. A fresh application was required and the scheme’s representatives sent out evaluation forms to approximately 30 of Irene’s former students, who were randomly selected. Out of all the nominations in the Law and Legal Studies category, AUTC selected two finalists, Michael and Irene.

Did you think of yourself as a good law teacher before you won this award?

MICHAEL

Michael chose to answer this question by reflecting on the effort he has put into law teaching and the emphasis he has given it over the last 15 years. In doing so he expressed a high level of confidence in his ability to reach a wide range of students and largely attributed this to his lack of need to concentrate on content. He explained that he did not wish to sound arrogant but that he found the ‘teaching of law...so easy’ adding ‘the law part, at the level we teach at, is no challenge, so the only thing you might as well focus on is teaching’.

He explained that he would ‘know all 1493 sections of the Corporations Law’. Given the dynamic nature of the law which Michael teaches this is a particularly remarkable feat. His advice to new academics for whom he felt some sympathy in having to come to grips with a range of new material was, ‘just know it’ and ‘then, of course, you are free to just teach’, pointing out that certainly for the last ten years he had only ever worried about teaching, adding, ‘ [c]ontent is virtually irrelevant these days’.

When pushed on the question of how Michael knew he was a good teacher, he referred to his performance in student evaluations. Michael admitted, ‘I used to get upset if I got below 6.5 out of seven. I regularly got 6.8 out of seven in the University’s quality assurance system.’

There is, of course, the argument that academics will score well in student evaluations if they pander to student wishes (by simply providing notes, summaries and overheads) and if they ‘package’ and ‘sell’ their courses well by employing a range of cyberspace options, although to do so may not always be pedagogically sound. Knowing that Michael was at the cutting edge of technologically assisted learning, I put this proposition to him. He chose to reject any suggestion that his evaluations were positive on these bases, pointing out that he taught a wide range of students including SJD, LLM, LLB, B. Bus and MBA students, all of whom consistently ranked him very well. When pushed a little further and asked whether it was possible that he merely provided all those students with learning packages reflecting what was voguish rather than educationally beneficial he was quick to point out that his student evaluations referred to his courses as ‘the most challenging’, or the most ‘thought provoking’ the students had undertaken. He concluded from these comments that his teaching techniques had been very successful in bringing about sophisticated student learning.

IRENE

Not wishing to sound immodest, Irene admitted that she knew she was a good teacher before she won the UNSW teaching excellence award and was runner up in the AUTC awards. Like Michael, she based her understanding of this on her student evaluations. In those she scored consistently well and again when it was suggested that perhaps her success could be explained as a result of her pandering to students’ wishes, she replied, in a rather respectful way, that she thought, ‘students get it right most of the time’.

Irene also commented that she was an organised teacher, who took quite a formal approach, being strict about issues such as the granting of extensions and classroom conduct. She thought that this sense of order was appreciated by students and assisted in their learning processes.

Irene normally begins her classes by explaining to students, in broad terms, where the class is meant to take them that day. During the class she relies on overhead transparencies to give direction. Typically, overheads would include information such as case names, legislation names, flow charts and the subcategories into which larger topics can be broken down. That her classes are clear is reflected in students’ comments which state that the notes they took in Irene’s class served as excellent summaries for the exam.

Another way Irene knew her teaching methods were succeeding was through anecdotal evidence from students. Many reported to her that when they undertook their summer clerkships the large firms often gave all the summer clerks a test in legal research. Although the summer clerks came from a range of law schools, UNSW law students were consistently the top achievers in these tests.

Getting through content in an interesting way has always been important to Irene because she wants to avoid a diminution of student interest. In particular, she reflected on her experience in teaching what most would consider a very dry topic—the updating of legislation. Irene decided to capture student interest by organising a trivia competition on this topic. She arranged the class into groups at tables, gave them some appropriate reading material and a set of questions. Each set of questions was spiked with one trivia question relating to the popular television series, ‘Seinfeld’. The winners were rewarded with chocolate frogs. Feedback from students was extremely positive with most students revealing that they not only enjoyed the exercise but engaged with the material at hand, finding this the best of her classes. Irene concluded by saying, ‘It was the best class on the most boring topic.’

Irene strongly believes that whilst she could see that her teaching methods were successful before her techniques were publicly recognised, there are many other teachers at the institutions in which she has worked who are also excellent teachers. She positions herself amongst a pool of excellent teachers, rather than as her law school’s beacon.

What would you say makes a good teacher?

MICHAEL

Michael identified an expert knowledge, fair and reasonable assessment and the ability to teach in a challenging and intellectual manner as the hallmarks of a good teacher.

IRENE

Irene thinks that a good teacher must feel empathy with his or her students and that this is a skill which cannot easily be taught. She feels that having been a student herself over a 25 year period places her in a good position to understand her students’ needs, problems, fears and hopes. Respect for students is another characteristic of a good teacher, according to Irene, who always takes the trouble to spell out what students can expect from her and what she, in turn, will expect from them. She is adamant that belittling students is the ‘death knell’ for effective student learning. A positive classroom atmosphere, thorough preparation and teacher enthusiasm for the subject need also to be added to the list of attributes for good teaching.

A lot has been written about the need for law teachers to have a strong theoretical base underpinning their teaching? Do you have one? If so, what is it? How important are educational theory and qualifications?

MICHAEL

Michael does not have a strong theoretical base underpinning his teaching and he has no qualifications in either education or higher education. He is of the view that there is no correlation between qualifications in education and good teaching. As far as he is concerned what one needs is an interest in education. In fact, he went as far to say that he believes that theory sometimes holds people back.

In the past he read educational theory and although making references to Bloom’s taxonomy as well as deep and surface learning he admits that he is not a dedicated theoretician. He points to his involvement in the ALTA teaching workshop as an indication of his working knowledge of educational theory. He states that, ‘there is very little new stuff...Paul Ramsden’s book is a great example of somebody who has just come together with a very practical approach. There is a lot of just get on and do it.’

In at least one sense, Michael has applied modern educational theory, in that he has moved away from teacher-centred learning to a model where ‘you put the student in the centre and you surround them with resources. You let them find their own way.’ He believes that is why his subjects are so challenging and he is confident that he has worked out a method where ‘assessment drives learning’. His ‘assessment is constructed [so as] not to allow surface learning except where [he] wants it’.

Michael’s teaching tends to focus more on experience than educational theory and he has adopted technology to facilitate it.

IRENE

Like Michael, Irene does not have a strong background in educational theory although she, too, has attended ALTA teaching workshops and has read educational theory out of interest. She comments that when she first began teaching, she felt a little inadequate and so enrolled in some short courses at the Centre for Teaching and Learning at the University of Sydney. She learnt a lot in three days. Some of these courses introduced her to different theories of learning.

Although Irene has no qualifications in education, she believes that her background in psychology (part of which involved educational psychology) has assisted her very much in teaching. She comments that she has come to appreciate that her approach to teaching is student centred but that she has worked this out through trial and error rather than through direct application of educational theory.

Do you use technology much in your teaching?

MICHAEL

Michael describes himself as someone who not only loves technology but is a high level risk taker and an early adopter. Consequently, he is an avid user of new technologies in his teaching. He is inclined to take the work of innovators such as Mark Freeman and adapt it for his own purposes. For example, he says he might take a package such as Self and Peer Assessment, which could have taken six months to develop. In one month he will refine and adapt it for the changing local environment and then he will ‘watch as other people follow some time later’. He readily admits that in the technological arena he tires of particular innovations and so drops them and moves onto the next challenge.

At the macro level his application of computer technology to law has greatly assisted Michael’s development of comparative legal studies in the corporate area while at the micro level, the Power Point package has greatly assisted him with delivery of material and he uses it whether he is delivering to two students or 800. He is committed to Power Point because it allows him to have a very structured approach, preventing him from rambling and permitting him to cover complex sections and cases in a way that the socratic method would not permit. He does not feel it compromises flexibility because he is someone who has taken the time to learn the additional features. For example, if a student is interested in a particular section Michael is able to cross to it through hyper links and he is also able to call up relevant cases by coming offline and typing in the case name. He believes this sense of immediacy gives him a very powerful teaching tool.

He is also impressed that the incorporation of computer technology into his classroom means he can call up an English translation of a phrase such as res ipsa loquitur. When pressed as to why this was better than simply translating the phrase for the student he explained that he saw his students as being part of a highly visual generation and that technology ‘captured their imagination’.

Michael believes that although he uses a highly technologised approach to teaching and learning, he is still able to accommodate different learning styles. This is because he sees the student as the centre of ‘the learning square’. He conceptualises in the following manner. In one corner there is face to face learning where the student meets, observes and interacts with the lecturer. In the second corner is interaction with the tutor. In the third are the electronic resources which give access to the whole world and in the fourth are the paper resources, such as texts. By providing a range of different media for learning Michael feels that he has successfully catered for different learning styles.

In order to provide an example of how he incorporates technology into the course Michael described how he organises his Masters course. He only meets with his Masters students three times per semester. At his initial meeting he takes a photo of each student on his digitalised camera and he transfers the photograph onto UTS Online, which is the UTS version of a product called Course Info; Course Info being a mediated, internet-based technology produced by a US company called Blackboard. (The name UTS Online was coined so that if UTS changed the product it used for online teaching it would not have to alter the name.) Michael explained that he was the first to adopt UTS Online (through its precursor, Top Class) and that he took it to 800 students which was the largest user group to which such a product had been exposed.

In assessing the success of his computerised teaching techniques, Michael pointed out that his website for the subject Corporations Law, had 17,000 hits while UTS Online had 80,000 hits by the end of the Spring 2000 session, and by week nine of the Autumn 2001 session his UTS Online site had had 135,000 hits. Half of the hits were related to content and half were about communication. Michael attributes much of the success he has had with UTS Online to the fact that he does not merely use it for transmitting information. He claims that some users merely convert hard copy into HTML, the language of the web, and then just transmit it. Michael describes such practices as ‘the worst model you can do’.

Instead, Michael uses UTS Online so that students can ask real time questions about their assessment, other administrative matters or questions of a legal nature. One benefit for him, as a lecturer, is that he only has to give the answer to questions, once and over the net. This saves him a considerable amount of time. He adds that where the question is of a legal nature, it is usually answered by one of the tutors in his course but where it is of an administrative nature anyone can answer it. Questions relating to assessment are only ever answered by Michael, in the interests of consistency.

When asked to be more specific about how his students use computerised learning which does not simply involve text transmission, Michael used his Masters students as a case study. He explained that they are expected to work online. They must review websites and contemporary articles on the six topic areas of the advanced Corporations Law course. They must write critiques and in so doing are forced to learn a little HTML in order to provide the relevant links. Further, they must also do research on the internet. By the end of the course, his 15 students have built up useful and quite extensive bibliographies of their own. It also means that the task of writing their final research projects on topics such as financial services, insider trading or takeovers is made much easier because they have a folder with up to date, comprehensive and relevant information.

Michael reviews the critiques online and as a consequence all can see his comments. When questioned on the issue of student anonymity, Michael revealed his strongly held position on the issue by saying, ‘There is no need for anonymity. Every student sees every other student’s work. When you graduate, you don’t graduate with a paper bag over your head. All assessment should be publicly notified.’

Unlike some other users of the virtual classroom, Michael has not taken up the chat room notion in any serious way, except perhaps over the Olympic period and by allocating a set time (between noon and 12.30 pm once a week) for chat room discussion in which he would participate. He explains that he has had little trouble with misuse or abuse of the chat room, probably because he is ‘a control freak’. He clearly reminds students about the rules concerning student misconduct, provides the links to these rules and explains to students that he has taken disciplinary action against students in the past. He alludes to a case where a student based overseas tried to change his name to something offensive but Michael intervened. The student was called before the program director, in his own country, and was reprimanded, with Michael ultimately receiving an apology. Michael states, ‘None of my students would dare step out of line. I am not somebody you take lightly.’ Michael confirms that his attitude is the same in the real and virtual classroom. Discrimination and sexism are not permitted.

IRENE

Irene has used computer technology when teaching Legal Research and Writing. Indeed her book, co-authored with Graeme Coss and entitled Effective Legal Research, now in its second edition, includes significant sections on computer-assisted research.[5] Further, a number of Irene’s Legal Research and Writing classes were scheduled in her Faculty’s computer laboratory. One technique she commonly used in these classes was to set students down at their individual computers and project her computer screen onto an overhead screen for all to observe. This way she could use her screen to model activities and explain functions, with the result that students did not feel isolated. Such an approach reduced student intimidation. In some ways her technique was a precursor to some of the functions available on Power Point.

In her Continuing Legal Education presentations, Irene has regularly used Power Point. She likes the way the program permits her to tailor the appearance of points but says, at this stage, her teaching of Criminal Law in the undergraduate program is not highly technologised. She does, however, rely on some traditionally technological aids such as videos and overhead projectors but she has not set up a Criminal Law website or a chat room, for example. She is aware that others are trialling programs such as blackboard.com and she keeps an open mind to the programs.

Unlike Michael, Irene does not use computer technology as part of her assessment process. She comments, in regard to assessment, that teachers are limited by their faculty’s regime and the restrictions imposed by being part of a teaching team in a specific subject. She does, however, favour awarding class participation marks where the class is sufficiently small for her to know the students, but she is not convinced that peer assessment, which can be used with or without the assistance of a computer, is the best method of assessing student performance. One of her fears in this regard is that quiet and non-English-speaking background students may be disadvantaged.

In short, Irene sees educational technology as a positive ‘adjunct’ to face to face teaching and while she uses and sees the benefit of email, for example, she places much importance on the physical presence of the teacher. Irene enjoys the unpredictable nature of the face to face classroom and sees the pre-ordained nature of computerised learning as one of its drawbacks. Yet, Irene wishes to state that she does not reject a heavily computerised classroom per se. Indeed, she can see some advantages in it, particularly in relation to large groups, but any incorporation of technology into Irene’s teaching must be achieved without compromising her commitment to the view that different people have different learning styles. ‘No one system will suit everybody.’ She recoils in horror at her own exposure as a student to what then represented modern teaching technology. It involved several television sets dangling from the ceiling of a large lecture hall while the lecturer’s face jumped about the screen and the sound of static competed with that of his or her voice. That experience has made her somewhat circumspect about including technology for technology’s sake.

Do you think law faculties should move in the direction of having specialist teachers and specialist researchers? What do you see as the

pros and cons?

MICHAEL

Michael admits to changing his view on this issue. Whereas once he thought a separation of roles was advantageous he now believes that an academic is ‘a pie’. Academics have ‘three segments and those segments may not be of equal proportions but I would be very concerned if they did not have all three segments’. They are (1) teaching and learning; (2)publication and research; and (3) community service. The proportions can change according to people’s career stages.

Michael believes that his own ‘pie’ is weighted more heavily towards teaching than the other components but is quick to add that his research record is very strong, suggesting that he probably was ‘in the top five law publishers, for the last ten years, at UTS’ and in the last two years was actually the most published academic in law at UTS. He edits two looseleaf services in corporate law and sees it as his job to know everything about corporate law every day. He chose to give an example of how up to the minute he is by pointing out that in April 2001 the Financial Services Reform Bill was released. It ran to 555 pages and was released on a Thurday evening. By Friday morning he had a press release ready for Blake, Dawson Waldron solicitors. He comments that, ‘It is one of the disappointments. Now, very rarely do I ever get a question that I have not heard before. Rarely do I ever get to hear anything that is unique [when I am ] working with partners in big law firms or in-house counsel, which on the one hand is a bit scary, [because] I am now not being challenged intellectually by students at all, ever.’

Perhaps not surprisingly, Michael has long term ambitions outside of academia.

IRENE

Like Michael, Irene is opposed to a strict delineation between specialist teachers and specialist researchers. She sees such a demarcation as limiting the flexibility of faculty members. She thinks that people change and that universities need to be able to accommodate that change. Interestingly, in the light of her own success in both the UNSW and AUTC teaching award schemes, Irene believes that universities still tend to promote good researchers over good teachers. To implement the categorisations of teaching specialist and research specialist would, in her view, be to entrench inequality. She also thinks that the creation of teaching specialists would have the effect of making universities more akin to TAFE colleges and that this would have serious implications for universities as centres of learning and scholarship. In part, this is because the process of researching and idea development has a positive ‘spin off’ for good teaching.

In thinking about her future, Irene saw herself remaining as an academic, concentrating both on teaching and research and hoping that recent trends in the US and Great Britain, to inject the university sector with much-needed funding, would be replicated in the Australian context. She feels that there is still much she can achieve in her current role. She looks forward to continued involvement with students and hopes to learn as much from them as they learn from her. She also believes that teachers can never become complacent about their knowledge, in view of the constantly changing legal landscape. In these economically rationalist times, Irene feels privileged to be able to work with ideas and legal principles rather than commodities.

Conclusion

In a sense the interviews best speak for themselves because they provide insights into how two exceptional teachers teach and they also offer some considered views on several key pedagogical issues. Nevertheless, it is perhaps useful to highlight three issues as worthy of special consideration.

The first is that despite their own very different backgrounds, personalities and teaching styles, both Michael and Irene believe that good teachers had similar attributes. They focussed on the importance of preparation, classroom atmosphere and interest in the subject at hand. Irene’s interview also raised the prospect that some subjects are intrinsically dull but can, nevertheless, be taught in an interesting way. Hence, the conclusion is available that the lecturer does not necessarily need a passion for the subject but rather a commitment to introducing the material at hand in an imaginative, clear and exciting way. This shifts the emphasis away from the subject matter to the teaching itself, and Irene’s practical example of how she achieved this in regard to a subject almost universally considered dull, updating legislation, made her proposition quite convincing. However, another of the issues that Irene’s example raises is the extent to which ‘sexy packaging’ actually enhances learning.

Certainly, encouraging and tempting students to engage with the subject is very important. Indeed students may sometimes need to be encouraged to engage with dull topic areas but once connected, there is still the question of the extent to which ‘fun’ techniques actually enhance learning and how much they operate as emphemeral gimmicks which do no more than give the student a transient good time.[6]

Educationists have long espoused the belief that learning should be fun and if games and gimmicks assist in making learning fun, that is not necessarily a bad thing.[7] If the game or technique can be demonstrated to have educational value it is usually considered worthy of inclusion. In Irene’s example that value is possibly best expressed in terms of the game keeping the student engaged in the larger task of reading material from which he/she is expected to identify and isolate ways in which legislation is to be updated. Hence the game’s validity becomes tied to its role as the tool for the maintenance of intellectual engagement with the designated task. Of itself it may be regarded as a technique promoting surface learning only but combined with other techniques it can serve a useful function.[8]

The second issue worth highlighting is the different position of Michael and Irene on the issue of technology. Michael is clearly a proponent of the incorporation of computerised technology as a learning tool and he is able to offer examples of a range of ways in which technology can successfully be incorporated into teaching. Irene’s interview, although clearly demonstrating that she is not averse to the incorporation of technology, seemed to raise an underlying concern, that perhaps technology could, at times, be used for its own sake. This concern has long existed amongst both legal academics and educationists more generally. The concern is based on the fear that new technologies may sometimes be incorporated without due regard given to their educational benefit.[9] For example, at times it may be tempting to succumb to the charm and fascination of Power Point or the chat room without linking the teaching tool to the aims and objectives of the learning task. Nevertheless, if a concerted effort is made to keep this link at the front of one’s mind when planning classes this criticism can be avoided.

The final point in conclusion is that both Michael and Irene are forthright in their opposition to the division of faculties within universities into specialist teacher and specialist researcher roles. Although they rely on different reasoning, they both come to the same conclusion. That Michael and Irene both have strong publishing records and have received acclaim as outstanding teachers is testimony to the fact that the two roles are integrally related and reflect an interdependency. Perhaps university administrators should listen to Michael and Irene.

[1]Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Technology, Sydney.

[2]Teaching and research are usually assessed in conjunction with other requirements such as community service and/or administration.

[3]Oral interviews were conducted with both interviewees on 10 May 2001.

[4]For those of you doing the maths, it took Michael 12 years and one day to rise from senior tutor to professor. He says he cannot explain how the one day was lost.

[5]Nemes, I. and Coss, G., Effective Legal Research (2nd edn), Butterworths, Sydney, 2001.

[6]For a discussion of what constitutes learning and what are the key learning objectives Bloom’s work is still popular. See B.S. Bloom et al, Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: Cognitive Domain, McKay, New York, 1956. See also Pirie, A., ‘Objectives in Legal Education: The Case for Systematic Instructional Design’ (1987) 37 Journal of Legal Education, p.576.

[7]Ramsden, P., Learning and Teaching in Higher Eduction, Routledge, London, 1992, p.178 describes favourably a case study which uses games etc.

[8]See Ibid for a discussion of deep and surface learning.

[9]Gray, J., ‘Some Pedagogical Considerations in Setting up a Distance Mode Program’, in L. Hewson and S. Toohey (eds), The Changing University, Proceedings from the 1995 UNSW Education Conference, p.184.