Walk into any university in the country and you will hear it, you will see it around you and, in fact, you will probably even smell it. The traditional scratch of chalk, shuffle of paper and call of "take one and pass the rest on", has been replaced by the click of a power point presentation, and students arriving at class having downloaded their notes prior to the lecture. The dusty smell of chalk dust has all but disappeared.

Welcome to the university of the 21st century. At the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), 92 percent of the 500 subjects on offer utilise online facilities to provide class information, lecture materials, and even interactive lessons. Aiming for the whimsical "let a thousand flowers bloom" approach, academic staff are in no way obliged to integrate the Internet into their teaching practices, however, the option is made available to all.

According the Shirley Alexander, director of the institute of interactive media and learning at UTS, encouraging teaching staff to experiment with the presentation of materials online has resulted in a range of online services, from lecturer videos to interactive educational CDroms.

"We have also been able to use the Internet to provide different qualitative opportunities for students," Alexander explains. "The most exciting developments are teaching approaches which aren't possible through any other medium."

Of the more innovative approaches to e-learning Alexander describes is a novel way to get water management students engaging in the politics that will ultimately affect them in the real world. Working in small groups, students were required to research the background of different leaders in the Middle East, and use this as the basis for their participation in an online role-play.

"I have never seen students so engaged in what they were doing. Some were setting their alarms at 1am so they could log on and see how the scenario had progressed," Alexander explains.

Although she concedes that not all approaches to online learning have worked according to plan, she says the more enthusiastic staff are cognisant of the risks faced by early adopters.

"There is a wide range of approaches, from people who just use it to post announcements to whole new approaches to class delivery," Alexander says. "The earliest adopters are generally so enthusiastic they are willing to experiment with different approaches, and they don't mind if it fails."

Cashing in on the connection

While the extent to which the Internet can be integrated into the traditional university structure is still being developed, the race is on to use this medium to offer classes, courses and even entire degrees.

Dennis Glover, was involved in the creation of the Knowledge Nation platform the Labor Party campaigned on in the last Federal Election, proposes to use e-learning to open up educational opportunities to a broader cross-section of Australians.

"We were searching around for ideas which would enable us to have a more educated society. We were looking for a way to include as many people as possible," Glover says.

However, in the course of his research, Glover realised e-learning represented an important economic opportunity for Australian Universities.

"The recommendation was that Australia aims to become a world leader in the creation and delivery of e-learning content," Glover says. "To achieve this, the courses needed to be just as good, if not better than, the offline courses on offer."

According to Glover, a leadership position in the development of e-learning materials would reinvigorate tertiary education in this country, and create more opportunities for academics.

While the Australian Labor party has yet to reendorse its Knowledge Nation policies, it is becoming clear that some of the ideas it put forward are becoming a reality in Universities throughout the country and the region.

Along with increased use of the Internet as an adjunct to face-to-face training, the University of New South Wales (UNSW) has launched an Internet-based post-graduate Masters of Business in Information Technology.

According to Lyn Forsythe, marketing manager for corporate development within the Faculty of science at UNSW, the course will be delivered to students throughout the Asia Pacific zone.

"The Internet has allowed us to offer flexible modes of delivery," Forsythe says. "We have full-time, part-time or online, and we now have over a thousand students enrolled from all around the world, from Papua New Guinea to China."

Similarly, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) is working in conjunction with the African Virtual University for the creation and delivery of computer science courses.

However, such offerings may find the wind taken out of their sails by an innovative, and ambitious project based in Singapore.

Making the numbers

According to Sheng-Yang Chiu, chief technology officer of the soon-to-be-launched Universitas Global online university, there is currently a global shortfall of roughly 32 million university places, almost 70 percent of which are based in Asia.

Due to take in its first students in early 2003, the Universitas Global online university aims to capture a proportion of this audience.

Initially the institution will only offer post-graduate courses focusing on business and technology studies, using material developed in conjunction with 17 participating universities.

"The gap between the demand for tertiary education and the supply of classes and courses is widening," Chiu says. "There is no way you can narrow that gap using traditional universities."

The training materials are all tailored to the Universitas Global system, and designed to offer classes to students in different geographies and time zones.

"We are offering students collaboration of an asynchronous nature so the student can post questions or respond to information when it is most appropriate for them," Chiu says.

Participating universities have also agreed to underwrite the quality of the courses, and recognise subjects taken through the Universitas system.

According to Chiu, the University will come into competition with universities from around the region, due to the availability of its offerings and affordability of its courses.

"We fully expect that a good number of our students will be young middle managers that need a part time program, so they can log into their classes after they have arrived home and got the kids into bed," Chiu says. "We expect most working adults to undertake our courses on a part time basis."

A masters of business administration will consist of 18 subjects, cost somewhere between US$10000 and US$15000, and can be completed in a time frame which suits the student.

With content being designed in three centres around the world and the recognition of other institutions established, Chiu says the group's main challenge lies in gaining the recognition of corporate institutions from around the world.

"We are coming in at the tail end of the first generation of e-learning experiments, so we are trying to learn from the experience of others and our own experiences," Chiu says. "We are no longer asking question like 'what would a classroom look like online?' we are looking at technologies which take advantage of the interactive features the Internet provides."

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