Ron Miller
17 December 2014: Australian teachers will be better-equipped to teach children with disability thanks to a brand new $3.6 million set of online educational resources developed by a team of University of Canberra researchers.
The researchers from the University's Education Institute have developed the Disability Standards for Education (DSE) eLearning initiative, which will help teachers, parents and communities learn more about teaching and learning of students with disability.
The program, which took three years to develop, is made up of seven online courses for schools' staff, as well as a web-based resource which will be publicly available.
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L-R: Andrew Boag from Catalyst IT, Mary Durkin from the ACT Human Rights Commission, UC professor of education Louise Watson and UC associate professor of education Chris Kilham at the launch of the program. Photo: Ron Miller |
It was funded with $1.6 million in research and development funding from eight state and territory education departments, the NSW Catholic Education Commission and the Commonwealth Department of Education. A five-year licence agreement to provide the courses brings the total value of the project to $3.6 million.
Professor of education Louise Watson said the eLearning package had been tested since mid-2013. She said that this period had shown it met a clear need for disability awareness training in Australian schools.
"An analysis of user data from the first 46,000 participants indicated DSE eLearning is having a positive impact on staff members' knowledge, attitudes and reported professional practice," Professor Watson said. "More than 100,000 people have signed up for the course."
University of Canberra associate professor of education and project leader, Chris Kilham, said the introduction of cloud hosting computing technology two years ago made the program possible.
"With a target audience of 300,000 school staff nationally, we couldn't have afforded to deliver this online training without the cloud," Dr Kilham said. "Now we have users signing on at a rate of 5,000 to 10,000 a month, and the system doesn't blink thanks to our Catalyst IT and cloud host Amazon Web Services."
Managing director of platform developer Catalyst IT Andrew Boag said his company was proud to be associated with the project.
"Providing every teacher in Australia with access to disability awareness training, using the latest technology, in partnership with so many education agencies is a fantastic achievement," Mr Boag said. "This is a great example of what can be achieved when creative people work together to drive innovation."
The DSE eLearning program was officially launched at the University's INSPIRE Centre by Mary Durkin,Disability & Community Services Commissioner and Health Services Commissioner with the ACT Human Rights Commission.
Commissioner Durkin said it was "terrific" to see such a practical approach had been taken to promote learning about the disability standards.
"I'm sure this innovative approach to learning will increase the awareness and knowledge that educators need to create a positive learning environment and improve learning outcomes for students with a disability who are accessing the education system," she said.
Canberra teenager and youth disability advocate Ruth Faragher spoke in a pre-recorded message of her own experiences in education and about how it was important for her as a student with disability to learn and how others also needed the same opportunity.
She called on teachers to understand the rights and needs of students with disability in the same way her teachers did so other students, like her, could say: "I made it".
