Community, exchange and diversity: the Carrick Exchange

The Carrick Exchange is a significant new online service that will provide communication and collaboration services, and learning and teaching resources across the Australian and international higher education sectors. The Carrick Exchange is sponsored by the Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. It is for those who teach, manage and lead learning and teaching in Australian higher education. The Carrick Exchange aims to provide access to quality learning materials and resources; information about new technologies and ideas that impact on teaching practice and student learning; opportunities for academic and support staff to network with others, comment on and exchange ideas; and a means for academics to participate in discussions, debates and dialogue about teaching. This paper reports on the first component of the Stage 2 ascilite research into the Carrick Exchange. Using a design-based research approach, the ascilite project team investigated the human issues involved in development of the Carrick Exchange. Twenty-nine key practitioners were interviewed. The interviews generated a comprehensive discipline, cross-institutional, national and international perspective of user needs and contexts of use for a national online repository. The interview findings were analysed in relation to engagement, resource identification and contribution, and peer review. The findings presented in this paper will inform the design, management, utilisation and associated processes of the Carrick Exchange.