Literature on use of formative assessment with electronic backup:

Heinrich, E. (2004). Electronic Repositories of Marked Student Work and their Contributions to Formative Evaluation. Educational Technology & Society, 7 (3), 82-96.
This is a very useful paper with a good discussion of self and peer assessment and some of the ideas may be useful to carry forward to my use of blogs. In particular there is an interesting discusion of scaffolding and confidence building. Both essential pre-requisites for effective use of e-learning for formative assessment.

Nunes, M. & McPherson M. (2002) No Lectures On-Campus: Can eLearning Provide a Better Learning Experience? Proceedings IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT 2002) 
Provides some interesting rationales for doing e-learning on campus.

Williams, J. & Jacobs, J. (2004) Exploring the use of blogs as learning spaces in the higher education sector. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology 2004, 20(2), 232-247.
Explores the potential of blogs as learning spaces for students in the higher education sector and  concludes that blogging has the potential to be a transformational technology for teaching and learning.

Farmer, J. (2004) Communication dynamics: Discussion boards,weblogs and the development of communities of inquiry in online learning environments. Proceedings of the 21st ASCILITE Conference.
 Weblogs, it is argued, offer new opportunities in the development of social, cognitive and teacher presence.

Farmer, J. & Bartlett-Bragg, A. (2005) Blogs @ anywhere: High fidelity online communication. Proceedings of the 22nd ASCILITE Conference.
Through the use of blogs, it is suggested that teachers and learners are becoming empowered, motivated, reflective and connected practitioners in new knowledge environments. The balance between individualised and centralised technologies is restored. The application of weblogs in an education setting will, at best, have a limited impact if due consideration of these developing communication dynamics are ignored.

Instone, L. (2005) Conversations beyond the classroom: Blogging in a professional development course. Proceedings of the 22nd ASCILITE Conference.
It reports on a preliminary analysis from the trial of the course, and reflects on the role of blogs in educational contexts beyond the classroom.

Background paper for ITP New Zealand, Critical success factors and  effective pedagogy for elearning in tertiary education
Has an excellent discussion of what provides an effective elearning environment.

Deals with critical success factors

organisational infrastructure (McPherson, 2002b);

1. cultural issues;
2. organisational support;
3. communication issues;
4. technical and resource issues;
5. staff training.

enabling technology (Currier & Campbell, 2002; Riddy & Fill, 2002);

1. appropriateness
2. ease of use
3. support issues
4. access issues. 

curriculum development (Brook Hall & Concannon, 2002);

1.  needs analyses
2. collaborative development
3. consistency and standardisation
4. attention to the delivery mode
5. expertise and training support.

instructional design (Nunes, 2002);

1. attention to underlying pedagogy
2. design for ease of learning
3. the technical environment itself
4. the necessity to work as a team. 

delivery (Coman, 2002; Nunes & Mackey, 2002)

1. pedagogical concerns;
2. appropriateness of e-learning for the students concerned;
3. contact issues;
4. tutor/teacher advice and support;
5. technical advice and support.

Key points for effective e-learning:

1. E-learning should not be a mass of online material for individual access without guidance on how to learn from it effectively.
2. Courses involving e-learning need to be planned for, and grounded in an understanding of the roles of teachers and learners, of learning, and of how students learn.
3. The role of prior knowledge in learning is critical and must be taken into account in e-learning design. Ongoing formative assessment is part of this.
4. The brain is a dynamic organ shaped by experiences. Conceptual links are reorganised through active engagement with information in various contexts.
5. Learning is an active process. It is the result of carrying out particular activities in a scaffolded environment where one activity provides the step up to the next level of development.
6. Learning needs to be meaningful to learners and they should be supported in developing the skill of relating new material to what is meaningful to them.
7. Learners should be enabled to become adaptable and flexible experts in their own current and future learning.
8. Learning takes time and effective learning practices enable learners to work with materials from a variety of perspectives while they become fully conversant with it.
9. Weaving e-learning into existing teaching and learning practices adds more ways for students to be actively and deeply involved with subject area materials.�� E-learning should not be a mass of online material for individual access without guidance on how to learn from it effectively.

McPherson, M. Henderson, L, Kinshuk Eds.(2002)Critical Success Factors in Implementing eLearning. Proceedings of the Workshop on The Changing Face of HE in the 21st Century: Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for Implementing eLearning