About the authors

Robyn Benson: I am a Senior Lecturer in Educational Design and e-Learning at Monash University, Australia. I have a MEd (Hons) in adult education and my PhD is in distance education. I have worked in educational design, development and research for over twenty years and during this time have undertaken and coordinated evaluation activities and programmes, developed and offered academic professional development programmes, and worked with teaching staff to increase the flexibility of their learning and teaching activities and resources. In recent years a particular focus of my work has been on the support of good teaching practice through the appropriate use of new learning technologies. As part of this I initiated the design and development of a series of ‘workbooks’ to support academic professional development workshops on aspects of teaching, and to act as standalone resources for staff. Recent workbooks have included an orientation to educational design and e-learning, and covered specific issues relating to online communication and online assessment.

Charlotte Brack: I am a Senior Lecturer in Educational Design and e-Learning at Monash University, Australia. I have an academic background in biochemistry with a PhD in protein structure and function from Melbourne University. I pursued research and teaching in the discipline and became increasingly involved in the challenges and theories of teaching and learning. I initiated and developed early computer-facilitated modules for teaching molecular mechanisms, moving to problem-based and online methods within the discipline. I subsequently moved into educational design more broadly and have since worked on innovations in learning and teaching across many faculties at Monash. A significant aspect of the successful implementation of innovations has been in providing professional development for teaching staff. To this end I have contributed to workbooks and workshops for academic staff. My educational design approaches in online environments revolve around situated learning, case and problem-based learning, experiential, authentic learning and using new technologies to support learning communities.