ITAS in a virtual environment – quality and efficacy in Indigenous tertiary student support

Comprehensive reviews of the last four decades of Commonwealth funded support mechanisms for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, including the history of the Indigenous Tutorial Assistance Scheme (ITAS) are well documented by Watts (1982), Bin Sallik (1991), Tripcony (2001) and Morgan (2003). Designed as a “supplementary” tuition scheme, Nakata (2001, 2007) argues that this is premised upon Indigenous students having had a deficient preparation for each stage of schooling. However, delivery of ITAS to Indigenous students continues to require enormous administration and commitment by the staff of Indigenous education support centres. This paper begins with a general overview of the history of ITAS across Australia and a specific overview at one Australian university. The paper reports on a research-in-progress which interrogated ITAS from the position of its Commonwealth-mandated bureaucratic workload, the inherent question of pedagogy, and the benefit to student outcomes that ITAS is intended to enhance. We will showcase some of the preliminary findings of this research into the quality and efficacy of ITAS by demonstrating process design and delivery improvements in the administration of ITAS at our university. We also provide some analysis of the evaluations provided by important stakeholders in ITAS, including first year and ongoing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, ‘first-timers’ and experienced ITAS tutors, and the academic and professional staff who administer and monitor the scheme.