Migrating to the Classroom - Online Support for the 2005 Beginning Teacher Alumni of UNE: Final Report for the Higher Education Innovation Program of the Education Alumni Support Project (EdASP)

In 2005 the UNE Education Alumni Support Project provided online support for UNE graduand and later graduate beginning teachers as they commenced their careers.Beginning teachers may find full-time work as permanent or contract workers, or, part-time employment as casual, relief or support teachers. EdASP was not designed to take the place of any support structures presently in place for beginning teachers but rather to supplement these.We were aware that many beginning teachers did not get the support that they needed. We were aware that UNE graduates were relatively more likely to go into marginal settings such as rural and isolated schools and also into hard-to-staff schools perhaps necessitating extra support. We also knew that UNE internal and external graduates were very familiar with online work and specifically knew how to use discussion fora based on WebCT software. Our main motivation to develop the project was to see if beginning teachers could be supported online.