Editorial

Outstanding Paper Awards at ASCILITE 2004

Peter Goodyear from the University of Sydney wrote Educational design and networked learning: Patterns, pattern languages and design practice. His paper offers a structured direction towards high level goals in "connecting educational values and vision to the details of the tasks, tools and resources we offer our students".

The paper by Mary Peat, Sue Franklin, Marcia Devlin and Margaret Charles, Revisiting the impact of formative assessment opportunities on student learning, draws in part upon work funded by a NextEd ASCILITE Research Grant [3]. In addition to being a model example of a research investigation into a first year biology teaching innovation, their paper is also a fine example of best teaching practice in the use of self assessment resources to improve student learning outcomes.

Deakin University academics Stephen Segrave, Dale Holt and James Farmer wrote The power of the 6 ^three model for enhancing academic teachers' capacities for effective online teaching and learning. Their model for academic professional development, with its emphasis upon encouraging "excellence in pedagogy online", helps us to extend our visions beyond the immediate urgencies of learning how to use new technologies in our teaching.

Idle Moment No. 10

Figure 1: Institutional subscription rates 1997-2005 for HERD, DE and AJET

Data sources: Rates quoted in printed copies of the journals and the publisher's website. Prices include Internet access from an institutional local area network in the cases of HERD and DE (AJET is 'open access', being unrestricted, free to the Internet, three months after publication). An earlier version of Figure 1 was published by Atkinson (2004).
HERD	Higher Education Research and Development. http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/07294360.asp
DE	Distance Education. http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/01587919.asp
AJET	Australasian Journal of Educational Technology. http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/

We can only speculate on the reasons or justifications for the large annual increases in rates for HERD and DE compared with AJET. The Taylor and Francis Group website [5] does not offer details, although annual reports are available, the current most recent being 2003 [6] (it contains much interesting information - "Directors' Emoluments", a graph showing the Company's performance compared with the performance of all FTSE 250 Share Index companies, etc; for illustrative comparisons, see Reed Elsevier's annual report for 2003[7]). T&F pay royalties and editorial support funds to societies such as HERDSA and ODLAA, but in general the amounts paid and other details, including numbers of subscriptions, are regarded as "commercial in confidence", and are not revealed to society members or are "for members eyes only" [8].

Why do we publish an updated Figure 1? Consider the view put forward by SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) in Declaring independence (SPARC 2001):

Does your journal meet its primary goal--to serve its community?'

As an editor or editorial board member of a scientific, technical or medical (STM) journal, you may be relatively unaware of subscription patterns and pricing histories in the journal publishing industry. After all, your primary job is to focus on journal content -- to make sure that the latest and best research is published. And when societies published most research, it was assumed that they were managing and pricing the journals with an eye toward reaching their intended audiences around the world.

But the reality today has changed. Some publishers charge readers too much money for the journals they publish. That has led to broad scale subscription cancellations and narrower dissemination. More and more editorial boards have found that they must become seriously involved in the business aspects of their commercially-published journals if they are to be sure these essential publications remain accessible to their intended communities. (SPARC 2001)

Printing upgrade

Roger Atkinson and Catherine McLoughlin
AJET Production Editor and AJET Editor

Endnotes

1. A detailed summary of outcomes from the ASCILITE 2004 review and editorial processes is available in the Proceedings Editorial. URL http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth04/procs/editorial.html
2. R. Atkinson, C. McBeath, D. Jonas-Dwyer & R. Phillips (Eds) (2004). Beyond the Comfort Zone: Proceedings of the 21st ASCILITE Conference. Perth, Western Australia, 5-8 December: ASCILITE. http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth04/procs/contents.html
3. NextEd Awards. http://www.ascilite.org.au/awards.html#nextedaward
4. Atkinson, R. and McLoughlin, C. (2004). Editorial. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 20(1), iii-viii. http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet20/editorial20-1.html
5. http://www.taylorandfrancisgroup.com/
6. Taylor & Francis Group. Annual Report for the Year Ended 31 December 2003 http://www.taylorandfrancisgroup.com/pdf/reports/TF_annual_03_FINAL.pdf
7. Reed Elsevier. Annual Reports and Financial Statements 2003. http://www.reed-elsevier.com/index.cfm?articleid=409
8. For example, during ODLAA's 2004 Annual General Meeting, conducted electronically during 10-21 December, members received some data on royalty and editorial support payments from T&F, but no details on numbers of subscriptions or T&F's subscription income for Distance Education. (Source: AGM participant Roger Atkinson).

References

SPARC (The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) (2001). Declaring independence: A Guide to Creating Community-Controlled Science Journals. Washington, DC: SPARC. http://www.arl.org/sparc/DI/stage1.html

Conferences advertised in AJET 21(1)		16th International Conference on College Teaching and Learning http://www.teachlearn.org/final.html Jacksonville, Florida, 29 March - 2 April, 2005
		AusWeb 2005 http://ausweb.scu.edu.au/ Royal Pines Resort, Gold Coast, Qeensland, 2-6 July 2005
		ALT-C 2005 Exploring the frontiers of e-learning 12th International Conference of the Association for Learning Technology http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2005/ University of Manchester, England 6-8 September 2005
	Brisbane, Queensland         https://olt.qut.edu.au/udf/ascilite2005/

The Australasian Journal of Educational Technology is a refereed research journal published three times per year jointly by the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education and the Australian Society for Educational Technology. Prior to Volume 20, 2004, AJET's title was Australian Journal of Educational Technology. Members of ASET, ASCILITE and ISPI (Vic) receive AJET as a part of their membership benefits.

For details on submission of manuscripts, subscriptions and access to the AJET online archives, please see http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/

For review inquiries, contact the Editor, Associate Professor Catherine McLoughlin, School of Education (ACT), Australian Catholic University, PO Box 256, Dickson ACT 2602, Australia. Email: C.McLoughlin@signadou.acu.edu.au, Tel: +61 2 6209 1100 Fax +61 2 6209 1185. For production matters and subscriptions contact the Production Editor and Business Manager, Dr Roger Atkinson, 5/202 Coode Street, Como WA 6152, Australia. Email: rjatkinson@bigpond.com, Tel: +61 8 9367 1133.

AJET is managed by an Editorial Board nominated by ASCILITE and ASET. The 2004 Editorial Board comprises:

Catherine McLoughlin (Editor), Australian Catholic University
Roger Atkinson (Production Editor)
Trish Andrews, University of Queensland
Carolyn Dowling, Australian Catholic University
Mike Keppell, Hong Kong Institute of Education
Lori Lockyer, University of Wollongong
Mary Jane Mahony, University of Sydney
One appointment pending for ASET

© 2004 All rights reserved. No part of this journal may be reprinted or reproduced without permission from the publishers. ISSN 1449-3098 (print) 1449-5554 (online).

HTML Editor: Roger Atkinson [ rjatkinson@bigpond.com]
This URL: http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet21/editorial21-1.html
Created 5 Mar 2005. Last correction: 5 Mar 2005.