Keynotes

ASCILITE99 will examine the many challenges facing the higher education sector in the new millennium. Professor Peter Coaldrake, co-author of 'On The Brink: Australia's Universities Confronting their Future' and Deputy Vice Chancellor at QUT will open the conference and set the stage for examining the issues.

ASCILITE99 is promoting a global perspective with an opening keynote from Stephen Ehrmann, Vice President of the Teaching, Learning and Technology affiliate of the American Association for Higher Education. Stephen is Director of the Flashlight Project which aims to assist educators evaluate and improve their teaching with technology. Stephen will talk about the US scene in terms of dealing with the major issues emerging there.

Day 2 keynote is from Ann Whyte, the Director of Learning at Morgan and Banks. Ann joined the company in 1995 as the foundation manager of the Learning Team working to develop and implement learning organisation strategies across the Morgan and Banks Group of companies. Ann complements her internal responsibilites with consulting assignments to a variety of organisations, helping them plan and implement change. Ann will speak on the 'Industry Perspective for Borderless Education' and will cover the 'Internet Revolution—fact or fiction, Jobs and Careers—the emerging trends, the Future—what it means for employers and the univerisites'.

The 3rd keynote will be on a topic that is emerging as an issue for us all. The global or 'borderless education' theme will be continued with a keynote report by the DETYA Evaluations and Investigations Program (EIP) researchers from QUT and Murdoch on Challenges to the Higher Education Sector from Corporate and Virtual Providers: The US and Australian Response.

Forums

Forums on Evaluation and Experiences with Flexible Delivery will offer a change in format with a longer time for questions of presenters and discussion facilitated by a chairperson.

On Day 1 the forum on Evaluation will feature Professor Shirley Alexander from UTS, Professor John Bain from GU and Associate Professor Carmel McNaught from RMIT updating us on what's happening with evaluation of educational technology in Australia. Professor Gail Hart, the Director of the Teaching and Learning Support Services Department at QUT will chair the session.

On Day 3 the forum on Experiences with Flexible Delivery will draw out lessons learned and major issues from three universities that have implemented Flexible Delivery in various ways over the past two years. The chair will be Associate Professor Ron Oliver from Murdoch University. The universities giving snapshots on lesson learned with conversion to flexible delivery are: Queensland University presented by Allison Brown; Charles Sturt University presented by Dr Ian Barnard; and the University of Wollongong presented by Associate Professor Sandra Wills.