The purpose of this portfolio is to demonstrate the links between my personal views of teaching, my professional practice in distance and flexible learning and the results of that practice as evidenced by teaching evaluations, feedback from learners and recognition from the higher education teaching communities in which I have participated at the University of Southern Queensland, Massey University and the University of South Australia.

My views of teaching are heavily influenced by my experiences as an adult learner in formal, informal and natural learning situations in the USA, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.  The result of these experiences is a view that teaching activities are informed by understandings of learning.

My approach to teaching is premised on views of learning as a personal, active, situated, constructive and often social process which places the learner (or learner group) at the centre of decisions related to teaching strategies and tactics.  My philosophy of teaching is one of supportive facilitation and constructive knowledge development rather than knowledge transmission.  As a result, my teaching activity involves not only subject matter expertise, but also attention to a broader set of organisational and supportive activities which help produce experiences from which people learn.  These teaching related activities include instructional/learning design, the selection of appropriate content, the production of high quality learning materials, the design and development of learning tasks which structure activity, the organisation of learning environments and situations which facilitate intended learning activity and both static and dynamic forms of responsive learner support.

In the context of e-learning, or more particularly online and blended learning, my course designs have sought to leverage the connectivity afforded by networked technologies and develop a social infrastructure which allows learners to engage in social learning activity in collaborative situations and task-oriented online learning communities.  Similarly, my research over the last four years has explored learners’ experiences with mediated social processes and how those experiences may inform best practices in the design, development and use of technology enhanced learning environments. 

• Track record of successful online postgraduate teaching: multiple offerings of 9 separate courses over the last 8 years
• Supervision of 20+ small postgraduate projects and 8 research theses in eLearning
• Fourteen publications and more than 25 scholarly presentations, seminars or workshops related to e-learning in higher education
• Demonstrated excellence in teaching as evidenced by course evaluation results which exceed college and university averages.
• Recognition as a leader in online teaching practice through selection as a representative on institutional monitoring groups and teaching/learning enhancement committees.
• Demonstrated academic leadership through appointment as programme coordinator PGDip(Educational Technologies), MEd(Distance and Online Education)