<span>'Blogging' - a contraction of the term 'web logging' - is perhaps best described as a form of micro-publishing. Easy to use, from any Internet connection point, blogging has become firmly established as a web based communications tool. The blogging phenomenon has evolved from its early origin as a medium for the publication of simple, online personal diaries, to the latest disruptive technology, the 'killer app' that has the capacity to engage people in collaborative activity, knowledge sharing, reflection and debate (Hiler, 2003). Many blogs have large and dedicated readerships, and blog clusters have formed linking fellow bloggers in accordance with their common interests.</span><p>This paper explores the potential of blogs as learning spaces for students in the higher education sector. It refers to the nascent literature on the subject, explores methods for using blogs for educational purposes in university courses (eg. Harvard Law School), and records the experience of the Brisbane Graduate School of Business at Queensland University of Technology, with its 'MBA blog'. The paper concludes that blogging has the potential to be a transformational technology for teaching and learning.</p>

Educators have long debated the usefulness (or otherwise) of final examinations; a debate that has typically revolved around the relative merits of closedbook exams, open-book exams, take-home exams or their substitution by some other assessment format (eg, project work). This paper adds a new dimension to the debate by considering how the final examination assessment instrument might be enhanced through harnessing the power of technology, more specifically, how the learner experience of the final examination might be made more authentic and, in the process, more constructively aligned with stated learning outcomes. The authors report on the latest findings of an ongoing research project evaluating the effectiveness of 'open-book, open-web' (OBOW) examinations delivered by an online university, vis-à-vis a closed-book, invigilated alternative. Earlier research had indicated that the OBOW model receives the strong endorsement of students in a number of respects, most particularly the quality of the learning outcomes. IntroductionAfter very little change in the university sector for several centuries, there has been something of a 'mini-revolution' in the last quarter of a century or so. The learner profile has changed socially, culturally and economically as new universities have emerged, enrolling an increasingly diverse population of students, and-along with this 'massification' of higher education (Carrier, 1990)-there has been spectacular change in the area of educational technology. These changes have been reflected in professional journals and conferences dedicated to teaching and learning, which have produced a steady stream of literature reporting on a wide range of research projects including, among other things, experiments with new classroom techniques, modes of

This paper reflects on the ongoing debate surrounding the usefulness (or otherwise) of multiplechoice questions (MCQ) as an assessment instrument. The context is a graduate school of business in Australia where an experiment was conducted to investigate the use of assertion-reason questions (ARQ), a sophisticated form of MCQ that aims to encourage higher-order thinking on the part of the student. It builds on the work of Connelly (2004) which produced a quantitative analysis of the use of ARQ testing in two economics course units in a flexibly-delivered Master of Business Administration (MBA) program. Connelly's main findings were that ARQ tests were good substitutes for the more conventional type of multiple-choice/short-answer type questions and, perhaps more significantly, ARQ test performance was a good predictor of student performance in essays-the assessment instrument most widely favoured as an indicator of deeper learning. The main focus of this paper is the validity of the second of these findings, analysis of questionnaire data casting some doubt over whether student performance in ARQ tests can, indeed, be looked upon as a sound indicator of deeper learning-student reactions and opinions suggesting instead that performance might have more to do with one's proficiency in the English language.

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