Staff Profiles - Robyn Benson

Senior Lecturer, Educational Design and e-Learning

Qualifications: BA (ANU); DipEd (Syd); MEd (Hons) (UNE), PhD (Monash)

Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
Building 13, Room E1
Monash University, Vic, 3800

Tel: +61 3 9905 3270
Fax: +61 3 9905 9767
Email: Robyn.Benson@med.monash.edu.au

Background:

Robyn is a Senior Lecturer in Educational Design and e-Learning in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Monash University. She has worked in educational design, development and research for over twenty years, with most of that time spent at Monash. She has a Masters degree in adult education and her PhD is in distance education. During her time at Monash she has undertaken and coordinated evaluation activities, developed and offered academic professional development programs, and worked with teaching staff to increase the flexibility of their learning and teaching activities and resources, particularly through the appropriate use of new learning technologies.

Research Interests:

• The experience of learning
• The impact of new technologies on learning
• Academic professional development strategies to support e-learning

Some Recent and Forthcoming Publications:

2009
Benson, R. (2009). Issues in peer assessment and e-learning. In C. Spratt, & P. Lajbcygier (Eds.), E-learning technologies and evidence-based assessment approaches. Hershey, PA: Information Science Publishing. (in press)

Benson, R., & Brack, C. (2009). Developing the scholarship of teaching: What is the role of e-teaching and learning? Teaching in Higher Education. (in press)

Benson, R., Samarawickrema, G., & O’Connell, M. (2009). Participatory evaluation: Implications for improving electronic learning and teaching approaches. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education. (in press)

2008
Benson, R., & Samarawickrema, G. (2008). Exploring contributions to scholarship in e-learning: Weighing up the evidence. In Hello! Where are you in the landscape of educational technology? Proceedings ascilite Melbourne 2008 (pp.66-70).  http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/melbourne08/procs/benson.pdf

Samarawickrema, G., Benson, R., & Brack, C. (2008). Teaching with wikis: Addressing the digital divide. In N. Whitton & M McPherson (Eds.), ALT-C 2008: Rethinking the Digital Divide. Proceedings of the 15th International Conference of the Association for Learning Technology 9 – 11 September, University of Leeds, England (pp. 84-94). Leeds, UK: Association for Learning Technology.

2007
Benson, R., Brack, C., & Weaver, D. (2007). Supporting scholarly e-teaching: Lessons learned from a faculty-based initiative. In Enhancing higher education, theory and scholarship. Proceedings of the 30^th HERDSA Annual Conference. Adelaide: HERDSA. http://www.herdsa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/conference/2007/PDF/REF/p127.pdf

Benson, R., & Samarawickrema, G. (2007) Teaching in context: Some implications for e-learning design. In R.J. Atkinson, C. McBeath, S.K.A. Soong, & C. Cheers (Eds.), ICT: Providing choices for learners and learning. Proceedings ascilite Singapore 2007 (pp.61-70). Singapore: Centre for Educational Development, Nanyang Technological University. http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/singapore07/procs/benson.pdf

2006
Benson, R. (2006). Alternative study modes in higher education: Students’ expectations   and preferences, Australian Journal of Adult Learning, 46(3), 337-363.

Benson, R., & Palaskas, T. (2006). Introducing a new learning management system: An institutional case study. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 22(4), 548-567. http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet22/benson.html

O’Connell, M., Benson, R., & Samarawickrema, G. (2006). Professional development for professional developers: Who’s learning about e-learning from whom? In L. Markauskaite, P. Goodyear & P. Reimann (Eds.), Who’s Learning? Whose Technology? Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (pp.599-602). Sydney: Sydney University Press. http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/sydney06/proceeding/pdf_papers/p169.pdf

Current Project:

Diversity and Achievement: How students from diverse backgrounds succeed in higher education, funded by the Higher Education Equity Support Program (DEST). With Lesley Hewitt (Department of Social Work), Anita Devos (Faculty of Education), Margaret Heagney (Equity and Diversity Centre) and Glenda Crosling (Faculty of Business and Economics). Part of an international project with Kate Kirk (Manchester Metropolitan University) and other Australian partners.