gamechanging education 2 d.w. nicoll director of entrepreneurship, student placement and indusity...
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Gamechanging education 2
D.W. NicollDirector of Entrepreneurship, Student placement and IndusityLimkokwing Lesotho
Co-evolving TLA with industry
Every planet, country, university, faculty, programme, each module we
teach, each lecturer, student, does not exist in a vacuum
Every programme, every module, every student sits within a constellation of
social systems—the faculty, the university, the discipline, the academic community, industries, the community
at large—that should also influence what is taught, when it is taught, and
how it is taught.
Community
how a particular program sits within others withinthe faculty,
We should all become acquainted with:
how each faculty relates (beyond cross teaching into multi disciplinary work),
We should all become acquainted with:
how our institution complements and situates amongst all others at the disciplinary level (i.e. what’s the qualitative difference, if any, between a degree in computing from NUL and ourselves, what about Univ of the Free state?),
We should all become acquainted with:
how this discipline sits within local and regional industry, which industries are growing, and; how do these industries relate to serving the community?
We should all become acquainted with:
What do we know about other programmes which are doing the same as we are locally and regionally? What do we know about the other programmes that are being taught here at LUCT?
What do I know of the local industry which relates to the programme I teach upon, if there are none, how could this programme possibly fit in, what would it take for it to fit in?
What do I know of regional industries which relate to the programme I teach upon, who are the main players, how have they made their name, what does it take to join them? How many people do they hire a year?
What are the obvious and glaring needs of the local and regional communities, and how is industry or government, or NGOs not addressing these? How could our students address these?
Every student comes to us with expectations, expectations of how they will be taught, what they will be taught, how they will learn subjects – most of this will be based upon their formal schooling experience.
If they were ‘spoon-fed’ facts – then they will likely expect the same from us. If they learned to cheat on exams then why should they do anything different here?
Learning comprises formal and informal elements, taught and self-directed elements, abstract theoretical and practice elements, learning about something, learning to do something, learning to be something, learning to transform, assimilate, integrate and incorporate
Every student is situated within a constellation of institutional and
knowledge organising systems—the lecturer, other students doing the same module, the module within the streams making up the overall programmes of a faculty—that will also influence what is learned, when it is learned, and how it
is learned.
Faculty
How does a particular student relate to the module contents and style of teaching? How has the lecturer interpreted and chosen to
pass on the knowledge? How does this particular module sit with others that the
lecturer teaches, and others that the student is learning, and the others it is related to in
the overall stream? Do the streams of modules properly combine and assimilate to produce a strong overall programme? How
does the programme relate with others within the faculty?
What they must know and be able to do, and what they should know and be able to do, and what they
could know and be able to do
We must identify at programme level:
1. The jobs, tasks, roles and responsibilities our students must
be able to perform and take on when they join their respective
industries
Then we can consider what they should and could be able to do,
independently and/or as part of a team
We must identify at stream level:1. The skills, knowledge, and
examples our students must be exposed to in order to meet the
learning objectives of the programme
We must identify at module level:1. The skills, knowledge, and
examples our students must be exposed to in order to meet the
learning objectives of the module
How do, or rather how can we learn?
From books and publications including the internet, from direct experience, from
practice, from the community, from research, from each other, co-learning with other students, with lecturers, with industry
advisors.
What do each of these offer as a learning resource over the others?
How do, or rather how can we learn?
From books and publications including the internet, from direct experience, from
practice, from the community, from research, from each other, co-learning with other students, with lecturers, with industry
advisors.
What do each of these offer as a learning resource over the others?
How do, or rather how can we learn?
from the community,
How do, or rather how can we learn?
from practice,
How do, or rather how can we learn?
From TV?
from direct experience,
How do, or rather how can we learn?
From books and publications including the
internet,
From books, our education and the literature, from case studies,
formulas, from examples of best practice, from theories, from
blueprints, forms and formats, we learn generic and/or universal
aspects of our chosen fields
From research and our experience of industry, our communities and wider life (our hopes, fears and
aspirations) we learn specific and/or individual aspects of our
chosen fields
Through play, tinkering, mucking about, trial and
error, through asking questions, testing
boundaries, breaking rules, through criticising, ripping
apart, intelligently plagiarising, mashing, breaking, assimilating,
incorporating, synthesising, interrogating and
investigating... We learn... 2 + 2 = 5
To create a holistic learning environment and experience for
our students, valuable and relevant experience, we must blend – local
realities, limitations, and conditions, with global examples of
best practice and applications
Also local industry here has something to learn from the
application of global best practice and the proper exploitation and
packaging of local produce, facilities and opportunities (i.e. tourism
ideas and ‘Brand Lesotho’)
Our duty as leaders is to how best to lead our students to what they need to know and to what they must be able to
do in order to be employable in the fields in which they have shown interest
– locally, regionally and the world…
Limkokwing prides itself as a global, industry-led university.
More than this differentiating us against traditional models of the university, how can we make this
work for us here?
Through teaching staff and students interacting with the immediate
external world of industry and the wider community, making this a
valuable, unique and integral part of the TLA process (different from
marketing)
Guest speakers, site visits, industrial placements, competitions,
conference presentations, displays, shows, books, consultancies, TV
programmes, debates, projects etc. – nothing new, many universities
and colleges have done this for ages
We want to use ideas from customer relationship management
to keep track of interactions with the object of making them more meaningful and relevant for both the industrial partner and for the learning processes of the student.
There are plenty of examples of bad learning experiences for both
industry and student experiences of placements.
i.e. students who are supposed to be getting experience in HR management, spending the
semester filing or even sweeping the floors
i.e. companies who wished to engage students to complete a task only to have it poorly finished, due to lack of appropriate skill level, or unfinished due to lack of time and
proper project management by academic staff and students
To let this happen, especially in Lesotho due to its size, will sour our
relation to the private and public sectors so our interactions must be
managed
Also, we must maximise each interaction so as to derive the
largest amount of benefit from it to our teaching and learning effort
At, the same time we must ensure we deliver on time and at the quality expected by industry
This places an additional role on the lecturer and their PRLs – as
arbitrators of what the students can and cannot do as projects – in some cases lecturers may have to make-
up for the shortcomings of students
In any case the shortcomings will feature in the marking schemes of
assignments and projects
We must identify and be intimately acquainted with:
1. The skills, knowledge and experience our students must possess when they join their
respective industries
Learning objective of programme
Students with sufficient skills, knowledge and experience to compete on the local, regional and international skills market
Learning objective of the streams
Packaging the right blend of skills, knowledge and experience to meet the learning objectives of the programme
Learning objective of the module
Providing the student with the necessary skills, knowledge and experiences to meet the learning objectives and to apply global, generic, ‘best-practice’ solutions to local problems
What’s the difference between being produce able to
satisfactorily produce for LTV, SABC, and AL Jezzera?
Area Local Regional Global Question
Broadcast LTV SABC CNN, BBC, AL JEZERRA
What is the difference – in technology? In production methods, in content, in look and feel?
Best case examples – locally, regionally, globally [why are they best?]
Foremost companies, locally, regionally, globally – in terms of size, cash turnover, skills [awards, reputations, innovative work]
Business Street vendors Pick and Pay Woolworths
Design and print Local publications
Traditional arts and crafts
Regional publications
Regional identities
Global publications
Global interests in diversity
Architecture Vernacular, traditional
Brick, Euro-methods
Blueprint, generic houses,
Fashion Local dress Regional dress Global trends
Tourism Geography, wildlife, plants, traditions, crafts and cultural artifacts
ICT Local needs Regional Needs Global needs
Particular Generic
Particular local knowledgeis gained through local research
done by staff and students – every staff member should strive to become an expert on the local application of the knowledge
domain they teach
I.E. someone teaching Javascript language should seek out – via contact with
local companies – examples of Javascript’s
application and development
In addition they should know the value of it regionally and globally, and against other languages, those existent and emerging
They should, for sure, identify local, regional and global practioners, be aware of the most successful companies at each level, and have an idea of what it takes to join such companies
That is our bench mark to whether we are doing a good job or not…
This same company can provide a guest speaker – they should talk about the business in Lesotho - opportunities, threats etc.They should also provide some insight to the organisation of work, site visit?
To begin with ask yourself the question:
Could I supplant my assignments with industry projects?
Could I include industry relevant problems in my exams?
Leadership Is a … Mutual
Discovery Process.
TeachingIndustry led workshop sessions
Skills levels achieved
AssessmentsIndustry reps having input to marking
Assessments benchmarked
against industry standards
Industry inputs Academic Calendar
Begin semester 1
Industry inputs project for assignment 1, site visits, guest speakers etc.Industry adjudicates assessments with academics
End semester 1
Possible placements, end of semester shows
Begin semester 2
Industry inputs project for assignment 1, , site visits, guest speakers etc.Industry adjudicates assessments with academics
End Semester 2
Possible placements, , end of semester shows
Assignments as projects
Industry Representat
ive
Student
Academic Staff
Academic staff choose and liaise with industry advisor
Industry advisor and academics have input into project given to students
Academic staff mentor students to meet deadline and quality required by industry
Assignments as projects
Industry Representat
ive
Academic Staff
Student
Student submits project assignment to both academic staff and industry advisor
Industry advisor and academics provide feedback and/or marking in concordance with proficiency and any shortcomings on professional standards/usability
Net result is that students and academic staff get exposed to industry expectations of proficiency and industry gets a potentially useful product/design/plan or idea