Cathy Gunn, head of the eLearning Group at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, will deliver a presentation on e-learning at York Tuesday.
Faculty and Organizational Perspectives on Blended Learning: Which Part of the Elephant are You Touching?, will take place Oct. 9, from 10:30am to noon, at 1009 TEL Building, Keele campus.
Gunn will discuss the rationale for universities to move with the global trend of blending personal contact teaching and e-learning in campus-based courses as being clear in educational, economic and practical terms. Yet faculty can find themselves moving against an “organizational tide” to apply innovative blended learning 
strategies at practice level, in institutions frustrated by teaching and learning innovation strategies that fail to achieve the intended goals, says Gunn.
Cathy Gunn
Investigations of this no-win situation in the Australasian university sector point to actions that are necessary to move in more productive directions. Discussion of the relevance of the Australasian study to the local context at York University will be invited.
Gunn has contributed to Australasia’s university sector during 17 years at the Centre for Academic Development at the University of Auckland. In her current role, she leads a multi-skilled professional e-learning team working collaboratively across disciplines in New Zealand’s largest research university to design and deliver blended and e-learning courses for students and professional development opportunities for faculty.
Her research is practice-focused, investigating contemporary issues in e-learning, including educational leadership, sustaining educational innovations and promoting organizational change.
She was an executive member (1999 – 2001), vice-president (2002 – 2003) and president (2004 – 2008) of Ascilite, Australasia’s leading professional society for e-learning researchers and practitioners. She has worked in the university sector for over 20 years in Scotland, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Australia.