Information Technologies in Supporting Research Based Teaching and Learning.

investigating ways in which technology can be used to enhance the quality of courses in research led institutions. It is however difficult to design technological support for learning processes when it is unclear what those processes are. The project team have had to clarify the ’nature ’ of courses at research led institutions and investigate ways in which the ’quality ’ of such courses may be enhanced using C&IT. This has inevitably led to discussions regarding the relationship between research, teaching and learning. Whilst acknowledging the political nature of such discussion, the team was nevertheless required to establish some underlying educational principles which may relate to general learning processes including those associated with professional vocation based courses. Academics could relate these to their own experience of teaching in research led institutions (in terms of working practice) and also become better informed of appropriate ways of implementing effective C&IT in such courses. The importance of the assessment criteria is emphasised. The focus has been to identify two fundamental learning processes. These have been termed ’adoptive learning ’ and ’adaptive learning’. Adoptive learning is undertaken b