addressing student expectations and learning preferences?

The role and importance of technology in an educational environment is growing and changing at a rapid pace. This technology has the potential to address many deficiencies of more traditional educational models, but also has accompanying potential drawbacks. As educators, we are balancing on a daily basis, differing expectations of our students (particularly across the generations), changing societal norms in relation to the balancing of work/life and education, and the turbulent landscape of resource allocation and focus in the tertiary education sector. This study provides insights into student perceptions and expectations in three large, cross-discipline courses, each using different forms of technology-enabled delivery or assessment. In particular, the study considers individual students learning styles and whether this impacts their preference for, or expectations and experiences of technology-enabled learning. Keywords learning styles, tertiary education, flexible delivery, web delivery, technology, online assessment Note: To maintain consistency, throughout this paper, the term course is used to refer to an individual unit of study undertaken as part of an undergraduate program. Some institutions may refer to these as subjects or units