The University of Queensland is one of only seven universities worldwide taking part in an international online collaboration to improve the student learning experience.
UQ was the only Australian university selected as a `hub` institution for the US-based Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) initiative. An iLabs project has been developed to introduce a suite of software tools that make it efficient to bring online and to manage complex laboratory experiments.
The MIT-UQ iCampus Outreach Program collaboration aims to disseminate innovative educational technology tools that can make a significant difference to how well and quickly students learn.
The project will be launched today (November 2) as part of UQ`s 2005 Teaching and Learning Week.
Director of Learning Outreach with the MIT iCampus Outreach Program Dr Phillip Long will demonstrate the range of iCampus projects available.
UQ Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Professor Michael Keniger said the MIT iCampus program was aimed at achieving a broad, substantial and sustainable impact on higher education through information technology.
“iCampus incubates innovations for laboratories, classrooms and campus communities at MIT and promotes their dissemination around the world. UQ is delighted to be one of the seven worldwide `hubs`,” he said.
As part of the collaboration UQ will initially focus on the development of the iLabs (remote laboratories) and xTutor (a toolkit for creating online courses) projects.
The iLabs project is dedicated to the proposition that online laboratories - real laboratories accessed through the Internet - can enrich science and engineering education.
“The iLabs vision is to share expensive equipment and educational materials associated with laboratory experiments as broadly as possible within higher education and beyond,” Professor Keniger said.
iLab teams have created remote laboratories at MIT in microelectronics, chemical engineering, polymer crystallisation, structural engineering and signal processing as case studies for understanding the complex requirements of operating remote lab experiments.
UQ`s School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering staff are currently pursuing a number of experiments based around the iLabs technology. One of these experiments will be demonstrated at the official launch, which takes place in the Sir James Foots Building at the St Lucia campus between 9am and 4pm.
Other iCampus projects available for UQ adoption will also be discussed during Teaching and Learning Week. These include the Online Assessment Tool, iMOAT; a cross media annotation system developed to enhance the use of video and image in humanities classes, xMAS; and Web-based wireless sensors for education, iDAT.
The MIT-UQ iCampus Outreach Program launch is one of the many events taking place during UQ`s fourth annual Teaching and Learning Week.
For further information on UQ Teaching and Learning Week events please visit www.uq.edu.au/teaching-learning Details are also available on the UQ Events calendar at www.uq.edu.au/events
Media: For more information, contact Chris Saxby at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 2479, email c.saxby@uq.edu.au).
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