Think global, act local : using the internet to facilitate transformative learning in regional universities

The recent increase in the number of international students in the Australian highereducation system has dramatically affected the ways in which regional universitiesunderstand their identity and mission. No longer focused primarily on their localregional communities, such institutions are now involved in negotiating theproblematic relationships between, and the multiple identities of, the global and thelocal in their classrooms, both physical and virtual. This paper identifies ways inwhich regional universities can use online learning as a tool for transformation of alltheir students, wherever they are located, and, by extension, of their own regional,national and international communities.