Providing language and academic skills support in a multi-media and distributed learning environment

[extract] This paper examines the role of the language and academic skills (LAS) lecturer in a multi-media and geographically distributed learning environment at the University of Wollongong. By this we mean providing language and academic skills support where subjects comprising various degree programs are taught simultaneously across a range of networked satellite campuses including, at times, the central campus: hence the idea of a ‘distributed learning environment’. Subject delivery to this network of campuses is variously achieved through the use of multi-media teaching and learning technologies such as videoconferencing, web-based resources, online discussion spaces, pod-cast lectures, and face-to-face tutorials. We argue that the language and academic skills support role, which has become evermore complex in the twenty-first century Australian university system, demands further review when enacted in the learning environment sketched above.