Vision
Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi views all its educational practices as being inextricably linked to āhuatanga Māori according to tikanga and te reo Māori. In keeping with this kaupapa, one of the many visions of the Wānanga by 2012, will be to offer all its programmes through a mixed combination of standard teaching and learning practices, noho marae, distance education and e-Learning.
Current Practice
Staff can conduct lectures and tutorials online, facilitate ‘one-to-one’ and group chat-room sessions with lecturers and the class, offer secure access to internal email facilities, use forum postings to generate further discussions and an online journal to record student progress. Staff and students are able to upload and download any digital resource type (with size limits) for easy access and distribution.
The Bachelor of Māori Education degree and eWānanga diploma are examples of how the Wānanga has increased the students opportunities to choose from both the traditional forms and blended styles of learning (also known as mixed-mode learning). Although there are still the face to face lectures in those courses, e-Learning now makes up a high proportion of the staff/student contact hours.
But more importantly, this dual approach has provided a greater national participation on the courses by teachers undertaking professional development without diminishing their income earning capacity through having to take more study leave. Additionally, disruption to family life is minimised as the teachers are not required to relocate away from their homes for long periods, rather they only attend a number of week long intensives (e.g. live-ins or ‘noho marae’) throughout the year.
Because the Wānanga main campus is located in Whakatāne, eWānanga provides national access to many of its courses and programmes. There is also a growing international interest in eWānanga because the Wānanga has had its PhD programme approved and this opens up a new host of opportunities to the Wānanga and future international students.
News Items of interest
In 2009 eWānanga will fully migrate over to Moodle. With Moodle’s growing acceptance and use by the Tertiary sector, the available expertise, know-how, intellectual capability and related services will now be used to help sustain and grow the new capability of eWānanga, supported by our eWānanga philosophy for our eWānanga users.