Brush It Up: On-Line Resources for Fostering Independent Learning

As Australian universities are increasingly pressured into attracting participation of groups previously underrepresented in the higher education system, the need to support these cohorts of students becomes more evident. This paper describes an online resource developed by members of the Linguistics team at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, to engage students with disciplinary knowledge, provide opportunities for independent and/or small group practice, test their understanding of materials covered in the lectures, self-evaluate their work, conduct exam revisions, and overall scaffold the learning process, fostering independent learning and self-reliance. While reporting on students' perceptions of this resource, we finish the paper with a word of caution about the effectiveness on online learning in university settings.