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Strategic Plan Workshop

Teaching & LearningMonday, 23 May 2016, Joondalup Campus

Session One: Key Messages from theCurrent State of Teaching & Learning

Participants reviewed the pre-reading and responded to the following prompt:

Focus Question: “What are the key messages from the current state of teaching and learning?”

Overall Response

The strongest messages are:

The growth of online teaching and learning; 49

The changing educational environment for teaching staff; 38

Industry linkages and graduate readiness to improve employability; 28

The need for improved student engagement and retention. 19

Detailed Input

Note – In this session and the next session, a dedicated ‘like and comment’ feature of the GroupMap application was used by the participants to indicate energy and support for preferred initiatives.

Idea Comments Likes

The growth of online teaching and learning (49)

The university supporting innovation in teaching and learning;

o Emphasise learning. 9

More blended approach delivery; o And should not be considered optional by teaching staff.

7

TEACHING & LEARNING OUTCOMESECU, Strategic Plan Workshop, 23 May 2016, Joondalup

Creating a sense of belonging and community for online students;

o Can a student get a degree in education solely online?

6

Develop learning models that can be delivered worldwide and in partnership with other institutions (academic and corporate);

4

Online room to grow, especially in developing international offering; 3 Are we potentially discounting the value of face-to-face contact vis-a-vis online

learning?;2

Celebrate the flexibility in online and evening classes, and advertise it; 2 Flexibility of delivery and catering to the diverse needs of the student cohort; 2 Lack of engagement in online?; o Often those who remain past

census delivery are at a higher level.

2

Room for growth in learning resources; 2 More flexibility in teaching delivery; 2 Online learning should been seen as equal in value and resourcing, as on-campus

delivery (students pay the same amount);2

Online vs on-campus - how do we retain our good student satisfaction levels with increasing online delivery?;

o By supporting the students properly and not treating them as 'those people who do not come to class'.

2

Making better use of online learning and using it in a better way;

o We need up to date, but crucially, reliable infrastructure to support this.

2

Consistent platform and approach for online learning across classes and schools; 1

Develop online resources and increase the student experience in online learning. 1

The changing educational environment for teaching staff (38)

Over reliance on sessional staff in some units;

o Need to invest in sessional staff as part of our operating model.

12

Recognising quality in teaching; 5 Capacity for improvement in induction processes; 5 A teacher or lecturer from 10 years ago is different to now and a different skill set

is required;5

More support for new educators; 3 All educators should have an education type qualification; 3 Add ‘education research’ as a priority; 3 Career path for teaching; 1 Ensuring teaching staff keep up with change; 1 Quality of practice and relation to policy; robust processes that reflect this; 0 Staff and students need to embrace change. 0


Industry linkages and graduate readiness to improve employability (28)

Multiple industry links within courses to improve graduate employment prospects; 6 Need to ensure that industry is aware of the quality of our graduates; 5 Work Integrated Learning is critical; o ECU does this well. 5 Real life industry experience is essential for education; 4 Honesty in potential employment outcomes and guidance via practicum

placements;2

Making students aware of their early career pathway post degree; 2 Education seems to be a means to an end (getting a job) and not about the

experience of learning;1

Employability needs to improve; 1 Graduate employability needs attention; 1 Low graduate employment. o Encouraging students to

promote themselves; students have high generic skills, so use that as a selling point.

1

The need for Improved student engagement and retention (19)

What will the student cohorts look like in 5 or 10 years and how will we meet and surpass their expectations?;

4

Room for improvement in learner engagement; 3 Understand who our students are and what they need to succeed, then we can

provide courses and learning delivery to support;2

Student’s work / life balance; 2 Reach, retention and achievement for student experience (eg: expand online

resources without compromising student experience);1

Retention is about managing expectation;

o Are we confident that we know what the expectations are?

1

Student engagement needs focus (if students knew more about what course options are, this could be improved);

1

Student engagement needs focus; good outcomes but student expectations need attention;

1

Change from focus on teaching to focus on learning (student outcome is learning) and always asking the question "what's in it for the student?";

1

Consistent student feedback is important; 1 Learning resources affect student learning; 1 Declining retention; o Lecturer rapport via physical

engagement with students does tend to influence student retention rates in a positive manner.

1

Engaged learning. 0


Great teaching and learning performance as a strength of ECU (7)

Teaching is one of ECU’s strengths; 3 ECU does really well on teaching indicators and students appear to be satisfied

here;1

Great teaching quality; 1 Student satisfaction high in Teaching and Learning; 1 Currently providing 5 star teaching. 1

The need to cater for increasing student diversity (6)

Increasing diversity of students; o Looking forward to the future but having more international students requires additional skills for teaching staff members.

4

How well do we cater to diverse cohorts of students?; 1 Some students really want to be on campus, so having a variety of campuses is a

good selling point.1

Others

Feedback about the shortfalls with IT; o Increase stability of the online Blackboard resource as down time heavily impacts on levels of student stress and feelings of support.

4

Perception of the ECU brand; o Awareness raising of what ECU offers students.

3

Room for curriculum renewal; o Looking for an institutional point of difference.

3

Benchmark with competitor universities; how can we excel in a competitive environment?;

2

Is scholarship of importance?; o Not sure what is being asked? We see scholarship as critical to T&L.

1

Align with national strategies for education. 0


Session Two: Suggested Initiatives

Focus Question: “In each of the following teaching and learning areas, what are the critical initiatives or actions? (3 – 4)”:

A relevant and engaged curriculum; Quality learning experiences for all students; Quality of teachers and teaching; Student support services; Quality learning outcomes; Other.

Overall Response

Across all of the teaching and learning areas, the preferred initiatives are:

Continue to develop teaching capacity through professional development and upskilling (18 + 18);

36

More time and structure allocated to curriculum review; 28

Further recognition of the importance of teaching scholarship; 24

Increase personalised learning experiences for students; 22

Ensure best practice in learning design; 17

Increase the focus on graduate readiness, whether for employment or other pathways.

17

Detailed Input

Note – This session included a dedicated ‘like, dislike and comment’ component to prioritise comments.

A Relevant and Engaged Curriculum

Idea Comments Likes Dislikes

More time and structure allocated to curriculum review (28)

Time allocation for curriculum development and review to be revisited and incorporated into work load models;

7 0

Ensuring an ongoing process of curriculum improvement and renewal; needs to be engaged with the current literature and research;

6 0


Relevant and engaged curriculum needs constant refreshment to give students the agility to shape careers in a rapidly changing world;

5 0

Reviewing cross disciplinarity and learning structure within the curriculum ; particularly with first years to improve retention;

5 0

Translate successful changes in curriculum into policy and practice; 4 0 More practical individual and group activities in curricula. 1 2

Increase the focus on graduate readiness, whether for employment or other pathways (17)

Employment focus is too narrow - you miss out on what Universities have to offer if you don't broaden this focus;

o Need to identify which students come to Uni for jobs and which students come to Uni for other reasons;

o How can we cater for different types of students?.

7 1

Must produce job ready graduates for the national and international markets;

o Career ready rather than job ready.

6 0

Assured internships post graduation via alumni; 3 0 Must relate to practice. 1 0

Increase the internationalisation of the curriculum (14)

Challenge of internationalising the curriculum when national accreditation standards demand a strong national focus;

5 1

More student mobility internationally;

o Mobility and engagement opportunities.

4 0

A university without walls; o What do you mean by this?;o Possible to elaborate?;o We'd all get wet when it rains.

4 0

Need to share practice on embedding internationalisation into the curriculum beyond student mobility overseas experiences;

1 0

Curricula that enables industry to deliver components of the course nationally and internationally;

0 0

Offer students authentic internationalised learning. 0 0

Use Associate Deans (T&L) to drive improvement (10)

Effective use of the AD T&L in the Schools to discuss poor results with the lecturer or course coordinator to assist in driving improvement;

o I agree - problem is that ADT&L's have no line management so they need to have the support of their AD (Discipline);

o Not just poor results, equally there are issues if all students pass a unit every semester.

10 1


Increase interaction and engagement for learners (6)

More interaction and engagement in classroom teaching (use SME's); 4 0 Reintroduction of tutorials, and

possibly introduction of online tutorials on a weekly basis run via Adobe Connect.

o Tutorials have not disappeared across the board.

2 0

Quality Learning Experiences for All Students


Increase personalised learning experiences for students (22)

Personalised learning both online and on campus; 4 0 Student staff ratios as appropriate to support students effectively; 4 0 Making students more aware of the resources they have access to; 3 0 Utilising peers as a mode of learning

experience;o Peer mentoring program at

undergrad level needs MAJOR change.

3 0

Engagement opportunities on campus and online; 2 0 Facilitating opportunities amongst students for collaborative learning

opportunities;2 0

How to improve motivation of students; 1 0 Practically based learning; o From a student’s perspective,

learning through doing is a valuable tool particularly for practical industries.

1 0

Increase availability of mentors at post graduate levels; 1 0 Ensuring our processes and ICT infrastructure cater for all students, including

those with special needs.1 0

Enhance professional development for staff (18)

Mandatory professional development renewal or refreshers for staff relating to learning;

o Very interesting that this idea has a 'down' vote;

o Win hearts and minds - mandated courses ensure attendance but not engagement or implementation.

6 1

Keeping abreast of advances in teaching technologies; 5 0 Better embedding of professional development to improve academic’s ability to

better cater for diversity of student needs and utilise innovative teaching approaches;

4 0

Quality academic and professional staff. o That are approachable and supportive of the student body and also between themselves.

3 0


Improve student induction (15)

Need to significantly improve student induction to better prepare students for effective study;

o Continuous induction rather than an 'orientation' focus.

9 0

Effective pathway management to prepare students for ECU; 4 0 Relevant induction and reintegration into the learning environment for mature

age students.2 0

Better information sharing and communication about the best learning experiences (14)

Better cross-pollination of strategies that have proven effective within the broader University context;

o Providing a forum for students and lecturers to discuss what does work within their units.

10 0

Find partnership models that enhance teaching and learning. 4 0

More research into the teaching and learning discipline (9)

Recognition of research in T&L as a priority; 5 0 Better understanding of how students learn and giving students opportunities to

figure out how they best learn.4 0

Encourage research informed teaching (6)

Research informed teaching; 4 0 Ensure research professors get to share some of their insights with students to

spread the word that we have excellent research;2 0

Increase research focus to promote the university in journals and citations, to help build a public profile of high level academics;

0 0

Embed research skills for all students. 0 0

Others

Appropriate application of resources and technology to support T&L; 2 0 Keeping curriculum up to date and relevant; 2 0 Class sizes and quality (trend towards

'mass seminars', 3hr sessions with a single academic and up to 100 students).

o Luxury;o Confused as to whether this is a

pro or con comment?.

0 1


Quality of Teachers and Teaching


Further recognition of the importance of teaching scholarship (24)

Recognition of teaching and learning scholarship as important as research;

o YES! 12 0

Teaching portfolios as evidence for teaching scholarship; 8 0 Being able to break into professorial ranks based on quality T&L; 3 0 Creating a framework where great teaching is recognised internally and

externally.1 0

Continue to develop teaching capacity through professional development and upskilling (18)

Holistic approach to the teaching process;

o Including adoption and understanding of necessary and helpful technology.

6 0

Mandatory and paid development sessions for sessional staff if that’s the way of the future (using more sessionals), including IT skills;

3 0

Upskilling lecturers in modern technologies;

o And getting out the message that its use is not optional

3 0

Investment in professional development for teaching staff;

o Teaching staff who attend conferences required to bring knowledge back and disseminate to others.

2 0

Professional development should focus on the nuts and bolts (activities to get students to do the basics of reading, note taking, engaging);

2 2

Cultural change towards continuous development and improvement of teaching and teachers;

2 0

Ongoing support for teaching practice (training and development). 0 0

Ensuring best practice in learning design (17)

Ensuring assessments are actually reflecting unit learning outcomes;

o Should also reflect CLO’s where mapped;

o Constructive alignment.

7 0

Embedding learning designers in courses;

o Particularly important for online delivery to ensure quality and consistency; use a common tool, approach and standards to increase the quality.

4 0

Recognising different learning styles and catering for them; 2 0 Supporting a culture of T&L

experimentation;o Finding the right balance. 2 0

Unit coordinators understanding the role their unit plays in the course - avoid issues of siloing;

o Recognising there are multiple layers of available support (across T&L, not just teaching

1 0


support IT technology). Uniform assessment practices within

departments need revisitingo And that lecturers understand

the role their unit and assessments play in the overall course.

1 0

Interaction of course curriculum with CLT offerings. 0 0

Find the right balance of industry experience and qualified teachers (4)

Teachers with broad skillset and ability to deliver via both physical and online platforms;

o Needs to be supported by a common online learning system and content developers to support teaching staff to get their unit online.

2 0

A solid balance of academic vs industry experience for lecturing staff; 1 0 Great teaching can drive better student outcomes; 1 0 Is industry experience or a teaching qualification more important?; 0 0 Could we consider requiring all teaching staff to have or undertake a teaching

qualification?;0 0

More fulltime positions made available for sessional lecturers. 0 0

Other

Staff not feeling that they are being held hostage to UTEI outcomes.

o Use a more flexible instrument that allows staff to supplement standard Qs with their own Qs;

o And also to respond to student feedback (perhaps via ecuonq);

o CLD improve staff buy-in.

3 0

Student Support Services


More effective support for international students (12)

A more integrated and strategic approach to acclimatising international students to ECU;

o Set up an 'ECU T&L Culture Bridging Course' for newly arrived international students.

6 0

Look at how we are supporting international students effectively. 6 0

More integrated connection between T&L and Student Services (9)

Closing the feedback loop between students and teaching staff; 6 1 Better integration between T&L and Student Services for commencing students; 2 0 Stop bouncing students between buildings and services for routine queries; 1 0 Apply same thinking to support services that we do to academia (buy in experts). 0 0


Increase resources and technological support to reflect student requirements and learning (7)

Increase online resources and technological support to reflect student requirements;

4 0

Areas of spending on student support services needs to reflect the needs of students (domestic as well as international);

2 0

Invest in technology to support the learning of students;

o Led by our T&L needs, rather than technology;

o Rather than IT telling us what they have purchased for our use after they have bought it.

1 0

Listen to the student voice. o Yes but also knowing who our customer is in terms of industry and community.

0 0

Provide student peer support and mentoring initiatives (6)

Student support within their own 'years' in the form of 'year coordinators' that work with all students in the course within the year (year 1, year 2 etc.);Identify struggling 'at risk' students and talk through the issues as another point of contact and reference point;

o As long as those coordinators are reflecting the School’s need.

3 0

Find funding to employ students as peer mentors; 2 0 Involve students from later years in first year to show students what they have

produced.1 0

Other

Opportunities for support between academic staff (peer support, sharing experiences of teaching delivery);

3 0

Better student campus life; 2 0 Less sessional teaching staff - they

have less contact with students and less familiarity with them as they just come to teach and leave.

o How we invest in our sessional staff is the more important issue;

o Fully support sessional staff as long as the assessments and management of the unit is driven by the unit coordinator.

1 0


Quality Learning Outcomes


Raise awareness of learning outcomes among students.

o Prioritising them within units and classes.

8 0

Build capacity for academic staff in developing and applying learning outcomes;

o Can this be mandatory? 5 0

Build awareness of learning outcomes amongst academic staff members (ongoing and sessional staff).

3 0

Create clear alignment between Course and Unit learning outcomes.

o Some further investments (including time) are required to implement course and unit outcomes.

6 0

Involve industry in developing learning outcomes.

o How much of what is taught is relevant to industry?

4 0

We need to convert our strong T&L into strong student employment; closing this gap is critical.

o Courses without meaningful WIL opportunities are letting their students down;

o Courses need to incorporate more employment skills development to augment students' learning.

4 0

Benchmarking learning outcomes against other universities. 1 0

Other Initiatives


Develop a mentoring culture across the university (8)

Develop a culture of mentoring across the university and in particular our Teaching & Learning

o Develop a better approach to peer mentoring and incorporate both staff and student peer .mentoring to ensure that both the 'teaching' and 'learning' aspects are addressed.

8 0


Build excellence in teaching & learning into the ECU brand (7)

Get over our inferiority complex; o Who has one of these? 3 1 Further build brand as excellent in teaching and learning; 2 0 Define who ECU are and how this can transform student and learning experiences. 2 0

Other

A T&L model that extends beyond the degree (pre-matriculation and post graduation support).

1 0

Reflections

Prof Ron Oliver made the following observations:

Most activity is in a ‘relevant and engaged curriculum’ – sense that people see this as important to get right;

Second most activity is in ‘quality of teachers and teaching’ – people see this as leading the others;

Learning experiences for our students is third;

Student support services and quality of learning outcomes are following the top three;

Some comments are applicable to other categories;

How can we have an inferiority complex, with our great student satisfaction results with teaching and learning?


Session Three: Interfaces with Other Strategic Goals

Participants reviewed the pre-reading and responded to the following prompt:

Focus Question: “In each of the following strategic goal areas, what needs to be in place to better integrate with excellent teaching and learning?”:

Excellence in research and knowledge exchange;

Advanced internationalisation;

Enabled by people, services and infrastructure;

Other if needed.

Context

Prof Ron Oliver provided the following context:

Setting the context:

– Higher education standards introduction in 2017,

– TEQSA reaccreditation 2018,

– 5 star university – build on it,

– Technology push, have to optimise online opportunities;

Areas where we are starting to do well:

– Retention - supporting students,

– Graduate employment – have to produce job ready graduates and support students through their journey;

Have to do all this within the context of the University itself:

– Research – world class researchers inputting into the system,

– Scholarship of teaching and learning – evidence base,

– International – make sure we offer the best program for international students; global outlook of students.


Overall Response

Across all of the strategic goal areas, the preferred initiatives are:

Better implementation of emerging technologies; 30

Add opportunities for knowledge exchange with international teachers; 22

Increase student mobility opportunities; 22

Increase opportunities for collaboration in teaching excellence; 20

More flexible student feedback systems; 20

Better balance between research and teaching; 18

Increase international collaboration, partnerships and co-delivery of programs;

18

Better incentivise quality and innovation in teaching and learning. 16

Detailed Input


Excellence in Research


More flexible student feedback systems (20)

Student evaluation systems that are better able to assist staff for what they want to achieve (more flexible student feedback);

11 0

Students should have a greater role in the award process;

o Yes but there's a big difference between a good teacher and a popular teacher;

o Student satisfaction is a really important element in measuring the quality of teaching programs.

5 1

Anonymous unit feedback that is web based whereby students can make suggestions and criticise units and teaching staff, and feel secure that their feedback is completely anonymous. This will open levels of communication that are currently shut due to fears of marks being affected;

o This is what we have;o Rumors within my cohort seems

to elude to lecturers being aware of who wrote what. So this may be helpful.

2 4

Encouraging student feedback to demonstrate learning outcomes through various methods;

1 0

More flexible student feedback than UTEI’s. 1 0


Increase opportunities for collaboration in teaching excellence (20)

Collaboration in teaching excellence in disciplines and between institutions; 4 0 International author collaborations; 4 0 Supportive rather than competitive staff cultures 3 0 Use of accomplished alumni to be guest speakers; 3 0 Greater collaboration between Schools within ECU; 2 0 Collaborating across the University and externally; 1 0 Inter professional teaching and research at all levels; 1 0 Multi-disciplinary teaching and research at both the classroom and project level; 1 0 Take the opportunity for ADR’s research in the new academic structure to initiate

support and encourage ECU intra-school collaboration.1 0

Better balance between research and teaching (18)

Develop more teams and collaborative opportunities for research;

o Is there an opportunity for students to be involved in this? This would increase engagement and learning experiences.

4 0

Having the research Gods / Gurus engage in UG teaching; 3 1 Research is not more important than teaching and teaching is not more important

than research;2 0

Convert new PhD's into new teachers and researchers; 2 0 Identify, develop, and invest in junior researchers; 2 0 Engaging in more postgraduate research outputs than simply theses; 2 0 Teaching informed research and research informed teaching; 1 0 Professors within departments supported further to publish relevant research, and

current KPI’s adjusted to allow for more focus on research outputs;1 0

Published articles promote the University and its level of academics, as well as citations. Financial support offered to research focused staff publishing in current interest areas;

1 0

Professional staff encouraged to explore research potential;

o Would require some. 0 0

Research Scholarships promoted; 0 0 If you lift the performance in research, it will naturally improve the integration with

teaching and learning; improving the rate and quality of research comes first.0 2

Better incentivise quality and innovation in teaching and learning (16)

More incentives for teaching innovation (career or monetary);

o Opportunity to prove their mastery.

5 0

Better mechanisms to reward excellence in teaching; 4 0 Staff response to, and own evaluation of, UTEI; 3 0 Better value study leave for teaching; 2 0


Celebrate achievements in research and learning, reward innovation and provide incentives;

1 0

Focus on publishing outcomes for academic staff; 1 0 Better recognition of excellence in teaching. 0 0

Further recognition of educational research as an important research output (15)

Reintroduce PG qualifications in tertiary teaching; 6 0 Workload model allows only for discipline research not education research and

this needs to be redressed;3 1

Developing a strong culture whereby scholarship of teaching and learning is valued;

3 0

Educational research should be promulgated through all disciplines and educational research needs to be valued more than it currently is;

2 0

Supporting scholarship of teaching and learning as valued research outputs; 1 0 Recognition of teaching and learning scholarship. 0 0

Other

Harnessing and showcasing professional expertise (not just restricted to academic staff);

2 0

The opening of a research centre focused on health sciences, that is supported by government bodies and other companies;

1 0

Ongoing TRG / PD for new sessionals. 0 0

Advanced Internationalisation


Increase student mobility opportunities (22)

International internships and WIL; 5 0 Increase the awareness of the mobility experience; 4 0 Facilitating greater opportunities for

study abroad;o One of the biggest hurdles for

this will be funding, however it would be incredibly beneficial;

o This can bring long term benefits.

3 0

Cohort mobility (inbound and outbound); 2 0 Recognition of new forms of mobility and exchange at national and international

level;2 0

What can we learn from our international students in terms of informing our teaching?;

2 0


Access the ECU learning experience from anywhere in the world;

o A university without walls. 2 0

Improve student mobility; 1 0 Streamline mobility destinations by discipline. 1 0

Add opportunities for knowledge exchange with international teachers (22)

Increased opportunities for study tours; 4 0 Need a program of teaching fellows

similar to the current arrangements for research fellows;

o To bring in international teachers to share excellence.

4 0

Use our international alumni; 4 0 More presence in international T&L conferences and fora; 3 0 Incorporate internationalisation into PG for tertiary teaching; 3 0 Quality partnerships which showcase teaching and learning; 2 0 Providing exchange opportunities for staff. 2 0

Increase international collaboration, partnerships and co-delivery of programs (18)

Better international collaboration in the teaching space; 6 0 Co-delivery of teaching programs with high ranking international institutions; 5 0 Reciprocal partnerships with

universities on a 'per School' basis. Each School would partner with a university that best aligns with their teaching, learning and research outcomes;

o Build strong partnerships and promote them while on campus and in publications.

3 0

Strengthen and deepen current relationships and build new relationships through exchange with other universities;

2 0

Choose a few key markets and focus on having a 'presence' by running selected programs in partnership with other organisations.

2 0

Consider culturally diverse groups in designing academic content (10)

Design academic content for diverse learners; 5 0 Contextualise academic content so that it is meaningful and engaging for different

cultural groups;2 0

Improve accessibility and inclusivity in courses; 2 0 Student mentoring available to international students using local students fluent

in their language and cultural understandings.1 0


Less fragmentation of services (9)

Address silo mentality; 3 0 Less fragmentation of services in mobility; 2 0 Articulation of what ‘internationalisation’ means across the University; 2 0 Ensure the student journey is an unbroken service chain. 2 0

Increase transnational content and activities (5)

Transnational groupwork embedded in units;

o This reinforces what happens in the real world with the development of internationalisation in industry.

4 0

More transnational education. 1 0

Other

Better induction for international students; 3 0 Language competency both in English

and other languages (bilingual staff?);o Bien sur!;o Muchas gracias;o If only bilingualism was

appreciated in Australia...;o De nada;o I want to speak betterer.

2 0

A more transparent CIH; 1 0 Student centred focus on international engagement in orientation; 1 0 Clear guidelines for international students to help understand their requirements

as ECU students;0 0

Think local, act global. 0 0

Enabled by People, Services and Infrastructure


Better implementation of emerging technologies (30)

The university website needs to change; it shouldn't be seen as just a marketing tool for prospective students, it's also a tool for current students and staff;

o Students really only use the website for access to BB and Portal. Is there a greater use for the website?.

6 0

Emerging technology user group; o Emerging technology interest group? Lots of hurdles to jump if we want to become emerging technology users!;

o Just write a business case for it ;).

4 0


Greater consultation between teaching staff, ITSC, SSC and the CIH, especially in changes of processes;

4 0

Ensuring student and staff awareness and capacity in digital literacy skills; 4 0 Better communication between IT services, academic staff and students when it

comes to implementing new technologies;3 0

Need much better consultation between IT and academics; 3 0 Freer access to use of emerging

technologies;o Promoting links to valuable

online material such as particular YouTube channels that are beneficial to furthering the learning of students.

2 0

Implement cloud based technology, such as cloud-based blackboard;

o Done.o Yes, Blackboard is now web-

based!

2 0

IT that works. 2 0

Improve professional development and career pathways (11)

Better promotion and progression paths for excellent teachers; 4 0 Greater support and respect for

sessional staff;o Which service or infrastructure are

we thinking about here?3 0

Appropriate career pathways for both academic and professional staff; 2 0 Continued funding for professional

development;o Also a culture change focus on

professional development; encourage more development.

2 0

Change the basis of remuneration for sessional teaching staff; 0 0 New ADR’s should support cross each other. 0 0

Improve physical and virtual teaching spaces (7)

Virtual classrooms to facilitate international classrooms;

o Lots of opportunities for offshore delivery to have some onshore support and elements with our technologies;

3 0

Dedicated teaching spaces for learning support;

o Yes, we need more flexible access to space; try and stop the space hoarding which is evident across all areas;

o The process for students to access rooms for this purpose is also very difficult for them to navigate; improving this process will improve room utilisation by 5-10%.

2 0

Better timetabling for seminar units; no seminars in lecture theatres; 1 0 Mount Lawley MBA rooms are sub par; 1 0 More collaborative teaching spaces. 0 0


Streamline the student experience (7)

Customer experience needs to be taken on board via greater consultation with students;

o Better qualitative student experience data.

2 1

Understand that some students cannot afford to take extended leave for study or WIL due to family or work commitments.

Potential to adjust delivery to be more flexible and agile to address this.

o We can be as flexible as need be given enough notice and where the WIL process has a single point of contact.

2 0

A more transparent CIH; 1 0 CIH staff be recognised for their expertise; 1 0 CIH should be in the same building as SSC; 1 1 Streamlining of (and better communication of) the end-to-end services available to

students;0 0

Better communication between students and teaching staff; 0 0 Clearer outlines presented to first year students to help them understand how to

timeline assessments and the actual time needed to write academic papers;0 0

Better resourcing for the ECU careers services.

o Careers services need to be proactive instead of reactive.

0 0

Simplify administration processes and tools (6)

Simplify administrative functions for staff. 3 0 Reduce the administrative burden on academic staff so that only their expertise is

required in assessing items, not filling in blank forms.2 0

Core set of tools with a global view as to their implementation and use.

o Standardisation of similar tools used across Schools and courses would improve the consistency for students across their units;

o Would improve knowledge and support for the tools Uni wide and ties in with the user group idea.

1 0

Other

Discipline related sabbaticals within industry; 2 0 Better campus life; 1 0 Develop a matrix to assess outcomes from mutually beneficial relationships

nationally and internationally to learn from what works for ECU and partners stakeholders;

1 0

Using exemplars of services and approaches as a basis to roll-out more broadly; 1 0 Engagement with industry. 0 0


Other initiatives


Improve collaboration and communication across ECU (9)

Collaboration and sharing of ideas between different Schools and teams within ECU;

5 0

Peer support networks for teaching staff across the University regardless of status (eg: regular meetings for discussion of T&L issues and methods for teaching staff);

3 0

ADR’s should facilitate cross ECU working in research and teaching;

o Great opportunity in the new structure to work across Schools and disciplines;

1 0

Bring communication back within the Schools.

o Streamlining and generalisation of email contact with students;

o What does this mean? Isn't there communication within the Schools?

0 0

Other

More realistic employability focus to get students 'start ready' rather than 'job ready';

o Absolutely - this is why WIL is critical but the issue is whether it can ever be mandatory or opt-in for high performance students only;

o Encouraging life long learning, throughout their professional life requires us to ensure that students are job ready, not just start ready.

o Are these terms that different?.o Career ready - adaptive experts.

4 1

Reflections

In a plenary discussion, the following points were raised:

Prof Ron Oliver:

Most comments are not entirely aimed at integrating with other areas ie research, but all comments will be analysed;

Idea that research into teaching isn’t as valued or valid as teaching into other areas, ie: e-culture not getting Aspire points;

What we need to do and what we need to fix here, not a lot of blue sky vision.


Discussion:

– Work integrated learning and internships, there is a lot of scope to grow this, integrate this within a lot more disciplines;

– What makes our graduates stand out, what do they look like? Have been looking at mechanics of learning experience, not looking at end product;

– Student motivation for study is to get a good job;

– Can do more with partnerships nationally and internationally to enhance graduate outcomes;

– Work integrated learning is time consuming and expensive, need more resources;

– We need different ways of looking at international partnerships as lots of people doing it;

– Leveraging alumni for internship opportunities;

– Do we want ECU graduates to stand out or blend in?:

• Need to be realistic,

• It’s about our University reputation;

– The word entrepreneurial comes up a lot in terms of job markets, how do we prepare graduates when two thirds of the jobs when they will be doing in their career don’t exist yet?;

– What do we mean by job ready? Are we preparing students for a specific role or more generic skills? “Career ready” is a term that is being used more, with ability to transition and have transferrable skills.


Session Four: Purpose, Vision and Values

Focus Question: “In light of your input on teaching and learning, is there any major emphasis that you would change for ECU’s purpose, vision or values?”

Overall Response

The common responses were:

Purpose:

– Graduate impact on the world;– Further emphasise ECU’s global outlook.

Vision:

– The current vision is appropriate;– Balance employability with other priorities;– Incorporate ‘innovation’;– Consider reflecting Edith Cowan’s values.

Values:

– Innovation, entrepreneurialism or creativity;– Alter ‘personal’ excellence.

Detailed Input


Purpose


Graduate impact on the world (6)

Educating to create a better world; 3 0 Inspire our students to change the world; 2 0 Create graduates that have an impact in an ever changing world; 1 0 Focus on how our university can impact on a global level both with its students and

research outputs.0 0


Further emphasise ECU’s global outlook

Internationalise or globalise the WA bit; 2 0 Focus on global relevance in the present and the future; 1 0 Remove WA from purpose, should be a global focus; 1 0 Engagement and partnerships on a global level; 0 0 Include statement that addresses a ‘global outlook’; 0 0 Should emphasise the importance of developing adaptable, innovative, career

ready graduates; Global relevance rather than WA focus also important;

0 0

Very locally and WA focused. 0 0

Other

Are we too closely tied to the notion of employability?;

o Why not?;o This is important;o If students are coming to get a

better job, why would they come if there is not a good chance of them getting one?;

o Personal development, social development or innovation.

2 1

To further develop valued global citizens through teaching and research inspired by innovation, engagement and partnerships.;

2 0

To provide a progressive learning experience at an international level; 1 0 The purpose is too bland. Anyone can

be a valued citizen, degree or not, or from any institution;

o About developing leaders. 1 0

To positively change an individual’s life; 0 0 Adaptable education and research; 0 0 Can be social or economic change or benefit; 0 0 Consistency in values over a long period of time is a sign of organisational

maturity;0 0

Doesn't require change; 0 0 ‘Get Ready’... for what?; 0 0 Look at a more aspirational purpose or aspirational phrasing of the purpose; 0 0 Meaning of Purpose and Vision are lost in the buzz words; 0 0 Needs to be more student focused; 0 0 We should not need to change these values every three years otherwise we are

not a mature organisation.0 0


Vision


The current vision is appropriate (3)

I like the vision; 3 0 No change - we are happy with it as it is. 0 0

Balance employability with other priorities (3)

Balance of employability with other priorities; 2 0 We develop the whole person, not just get them ready for a job. 1 0

Incorporate ‘innovation’

Incorporating innovation into the vision; 1 0 Include something about leadership and innovation in the wording; 0 0 Should include something about the students being innovative, adaptable,

creative, entrepreneurial.0 0

Consider reflecting Edith Cowan’s values

Does Curtin University reflect John Curtin's values? Do we need to reflect Edith's?; 1 0 Integrity and respect are great in keeping with our namesake; 0 0 Should reflect Edith Cowan's values. 0 0

Ensure a student perspective in the vision

Is this what the students want from their time here? Are we looking at it from the right perspective?;

0 0

Need to have students at the centre of any purpose statement. 0 0

International recognition of research and graduates is important

For students, staff and graduates to be highly regarded internationally; 0 0

To be internationally recognised for our high impact research and our global, career ready graduates;

0 0

ECU recognised for excellence in learning, teaching and research; 0 0 Very WA focused. 0 0


Other

‘Change the way you think’; 0 0 Have a look at some corporate examples of what they are looking for in

graduates;0 0

Mixes up things that should be in values, eg: Ethical; 0 0 Quirky acronym possibly?; 0 0 To be a young university with a mature outlook to contemporary teaching and

research.0 0

Values


Innovation, entrepreneurialism or creativity

Add something around innovation and adaptability; 1 0 Entrepreneurial thinking; 0 0 Innovative; 0 0 Creativity! Yes! 0 0

Alter ‘personal’ excellence

Creative Endeavour instead of Personal Excellence (more open and entrepreneurial);

1 0

Need to remove personal and just say Excellence; 1 0 Personal and professional excellence. 0 0

Other

I think we need to have social responsibility in there somewhere so we all act in the best interests of others and our planet;

o Is that not covered by integrity? 2 0

Is over-sessionalising the workforce impacting our service?; 2 0 Rational inquiry is a bit old fashioned,

what about innovation?;o Is this covered in 'personal

excellence';o Rational inquiry is what a

university is about and innovation must be informed by rational inquiry;

o Rational inquiry should stay - isn't this what a university is about? Innovation is too identified with Curtin IMHO.

2 1


In a world becoming more detached from human contact, we focus on retaining humanity and respectful communication;

1 0

Need to explicitly acknowledge Aboriginal history and culture; 1 0 Resilience; 1 0 Change of values to reflect graduate outcome goals; 0 0 Courage; 0 0 Collaboration; 0 0 Collegiality; 0 0 Employability - we get them ready for whatever career they aspire to; 0 0 Integrity is one of the most important traits in the world and also one that seems

to be in decline;0 0

We need to maintain our vision and values as they represent a mature organisation, and the Strategic Plan needs to change and adapt to accommodate the changing environment.

0 0

Reflections

In a plenary discussion, the following points were raised:

Prof Arshad Omari:

Need flexibility in our graduates, not much point in picking out certain disciplines as having it harder than others in terms of defined career paths. We want our graduates to be advocates for our University. Maybe entrepreneurship is a hook we want to develop;

We’re looking at things we want to lift up a little. We need to think more broadly.

Discussion:

– We have learning outcomes, student survey results, teaching results are high. What students don’t know is how the learning outcomes relate to their career end point;

– Need to publicise our successes such as flexibility in learning. Celebrate our students’ successes in combining study with other commitments.

Prof Arshad Omari:

Challenge in not viewing Teaching & Learning in a vacuum. Academics need to be good teachers, but that’s not the key focus. The University trajectory is that we have to maintain current teaching quality, change staff profile and move towards a research intensive view of the world. Teaching and research programs were quite separate, the VC’s message is that you can do both, or one or the other, whichever you are best at. We need to have the right people in the right places.


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