Technology based learning and quality in Australian universities

The introduction o f quality' practices and of information technology in teaching to the tertiary system have each been initiatives in Australian universities in the early to mid-1990s. The Department of Employment, Education and Training (DEET) supported these changes to the Australian tertiary system through the Committee for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (CQAHE) and through the Committee for the Advancement of University Teaching (CAUT). Through the CQAHE 'Quality' money was made available to universities that could show that they had quality assurance/Total Quality Management practices in place. CAUT offered small grants to university teachers to promote innovations in university teaching. These CAUT National Teaching Development Grants were not specifically for developing information technology-based materials (although the committee was initially established with a specific role in disseminating information about best practices of the use of information technology in higher education), but a large proportion (about two thirds) of successful grant applications had the aim of developing computer aided learning materials or were technology-based. The guide to applicants in the first years the grants were offered also perhaps implied a bias toward information technology based projects.