Students who have an email account can send questions about the course content and organisation. The staff remain anonymous which encourages students to use the service and also allows for the involvement of several staff acting as CyberTutor during the course. The students essentially remain anonymous as there are so many of them we do not track who has sent in questions. A discussion group forum is set up for students to encourage them to access each other in real or virtual time. It allows students to post questions or discuss any topic with their peers.
Students can either join a topic currently under discussion or start a new topic for discussion.
Plans are underway to use discussion formats for specific parts of the courses and not just as a general facility. We offer flexible delivery for some of our materials, such that our students can choose when they want to be engaged in these activities. Student responses to surveys show that we are using the technology in a way that is helping them learn, in a way that suits their lifestyle and which we hope will enhance opportunities for participation in higher education. The next few years will show us the ways in which students will want to learn and communicate with staff and with other students and we need to be flexible in accommodating their preferred learning strategies. CAL Modules in First Year Biology at the University of Sydney.