Judi Baron* (a) and Allan Christie (b)

a University of South Australia
b NetSpotCommunications

Contact: judi.baron@unisa.edu.au, allan.christie@netspot.com.au

At the 1997 ASCILITE conference in Perth a paper discussed the online pilot of a single business management subject in Singapore, the result of a twinning arrangement with the University of South Australia (U-SA) and a private Singaporean education provider. This pilot also resulted in the winning of the 'Best Internet or World Wide Web usage project' at the same conference. Since this time the remaining subjects have been developed for online delivery and the entire BBA will be offered online in Singapore before the end of 1998. The development of the BBA via the Internet grew out of a need to develop innovative and quality courses in the offshore market and to provide a better service for the students.

This paper will concentrate on the management issues and features of the BBA online site including professional development of academics and support staff both in Singapore and at U-SA, as well as the design and features of the BBA and individual subject home pages. Staff orientation and development, including individual interviews with each academic has flagged issues that will be reflected in the development of each online subject and will be elaborated upon at ASCILITE98. Features currently being considered include online enrolment as well as student and lecturer access to student records. Other features such as online evaluation, submission of assignments, graduation information, study skills support, a help desk (FAQ database), resource centre holdings, extension requests and past exam papers will all be demonstrated and reported on at the conference in December.

Another important perspective is that of the ongoing management of the BBA and this will also be expanded upon at the ASCILITE98 conference.