Teaching & Learning Connection

Melanie Fleming

UNE’s 5 year implementation plan signifies its commitment to embedding graduate attributes across the curriculum. To assist staff with this task, a number of workshops have been held in different schools over the last month which have looked at the constructive alignment between assessment, learning outcomes and assessment. These workshops have been targeted at the particular needs of academics and their disciplines. This has involved academics in group discussions about what the particular graduate attributes mean in the context of the profession or discipline. Learning outcomes and graduate attributes have been revised during the workshop for use in 2010. It has helped staff to identify the different achievement levels expected of students by academics at different years of their studies. These workshops have been organised upon request and with the involvement of the staff from the respective schools.

Further information is available from melanie.fleming@une.edu.au

UNE recently launched a Certificate in Academic Leadership. This program is a joint initiative with TLC and HR. The program initially targeted Course Coordinators, Discipline Convenors and Academic Coordinators. The program consists of 10 modules adapted from a project completed at Curtin University of Technology and funded by the ALTC to address the need to better prepare staff at all levels in higher education for leadership positions. The modules target areas such as leading a course review, curriculum development and evaluation, building leadership capacity and developing the leadership skills of others. All of the modules are designed to draw on the participants’ current and past practice, with a view to guiding or informing future practice. The discussions held in the seminars to date indicate the complexity of addressing such issues, but have provided a forum for staff to focus on areas of interest and need in their own professional development.

Further information is available from melanie.fleming@une.edu.au or kay.hempsall@une.edu.au

Mitch Parkes—Educational Developer

At the start of the year, a two year joint project began to explore the experience of students from equity backgrounds of UNE’s online learning and teaching environments.

To date, things have been going well with the recent completion of the project’s scoping phase. Included in this phase was a sector scan of all Australian universities investigating their provision of equitable and accessible teaching and learning resources. Like UNE, other universities have had to rise to the challenge of meeting the needs of an increasingly diverse range of students.

Next, the project will be moving into the data gathering phase. Key activities in this phase include a review of UNE policies and the implementation of a student survey. During the recent Open2Learning initiative by the TLC, a workshop on Accessible Technologies was run and was well attended. It is envisaged that further workshops will be held in the future.

Remember, accessibility – it’s everyone’s responsibility.