Education Commons^™

Integrating The Scholarship Of Teaching, Learning And Assessment Into One Institution’S Homegrown Professional Learning Resources, Maria T. Northcote, Anthony Williams, Kevin Petrie, John Seddon, Sherry J. Hattingh

Anthony Williams

Many professional learning (PL) programs in universities aspire to support tertiary educators to perform duties associated with teaching, student learning and assessment. Additionally, because much of a university academic’s work is associated with conducting scholarly research and supervising students’ research, PL programs also need to provide support associated with supervision and research activities. Faced with these multiple PL demands, one small Australian higher education institution developed a suite of resources to support faculty teaching staff and researchers in their professional capacities using a heuristic (self-determined) approach to resource development. The content of the resources drew on the principles of the …

Getting On The Online Education Train: The Journey Of A Small Higher Education Institution, Anthony Williams, Maria T. Northcote

Anthony Williams

Many universities have instituted professional learning centres that support academic teaching staff in their capacity to facilitate student-centred learning. Some of these centres also extend their reach to incorporate scholarship and research. This paper reports on one such case, in which a small higher education institution in Australia established what has become known as the Centre for Advancement of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL). From its inception, the CASTL’s intentions have been multi-dimensional, in that its programs, activities and resource development span the following areas of scholarship: 1) learning and teaching; 2) researcher education and support of postgraduate …

Accounting Academic Workloads In The Higher Education Sector: Balancing Workload Creep To Avoid Depreciation, Lisa Barnes, Warrick R. Long, Maria T. Northcote, Anthony Williams

Anthony Williams

Accounting Academics according to the literature are subject to external influences such as preparing graduates for future workplaces, bridging the gap between industry and academia and development of pathways to becoming professional accountants for their student cohort. Add to this the internal influences of delivery methods for student engagement, work integrated learning and casualization of the workforce, the accounting academic is at capacity in terms of how these influences impact on workload. Using the “lived experience”, this research delves further into the academic themselves to find that they categorise their workload into four themes of Teaching, Research, Accounting academic administration …

How Are They Going?: A Project To Monitor Student Engagement, Anthony Williams, Maria T. Northcote, John Reddin

Anthony Williams

The transition from school or work to university studies is not always a smooth change for many students. The university context may appear threatening, strange and isolating for some students, whether the courses be offered in on-campus or online contexts. While most modern day universities offer a raft of support services for students, including both academic and non-academic services, problems of low retention and high attrition rates still plague some institutions and some sections of particular institutions in the higher education sector. This paper presents an innovative program that uses technology-supported strategies within a regular learning management system (LMS) to …

Towards Engaging Students In Curriculum Transformation: What Are The Effective Characteristics Of Rubrics?, Anthony Williams, Maria T. Northcote, Jason K. Morton, Jack Seddon

Anthony Williams

This grant seeks to unpack the current use of rubrics in tertiary assessment, research the design of rubrics in collaboration with students, and disseminate ideas and recommendations. Our aims are to develop:

• a model of collaborative rubric practice (including design, use and moderation of rubrics)
• cross disciplinary case studies of collaborative rubric practice
• practical, research-informed recommendations for how to engage students in the collaborative process of designing, using and moderating assessment rubrics.

This published paper below is not connected to the grant but illustrates an ongoing interest in rubric construction and application. Bev Christian and Peter Kilgour have constructed professional …

Designing An Innovative System To Evaluate A Postgraduate Supervision Support And Development Framework, Kevin Petrie, Malcolm Anderson, Kayle De Waal, Brett G. Mitchell, Maria T. Northcote, Anthony Williams, Janet Carton

Anthony Williams

The supervision of a doctoral student engages the supervisor/s and the candidate in a professional learning and teaching relationship, described by some as the pedagogy of supervision (Grant, 2005; Nulty, Kiley, & Meyer, 2009). In the past few decades, many universities have developed ‘supervisor training’ programs and other innovations to support supervisors. These programs are designed to cultivate the necessary knowledge and skills to support academic and research staff to supervise postgraduate student(s) (Carton & Kelly, 2014; Carton, O’Farrell, & Kelly, 2013; Luca et al., 2013). As part of a project that was funded by an Office for Learning and …

The Researcher's Little Helper: The Design Of An Enabling Online Resource For Postgraduate Students And Their Supervisors, Maria T. Northcote, Anthony Williams

Anthony Williams

The question of how to support postgraduate students and their supervisors, especially neophyte supervisors, is a challenge faced by many higher education institutions. This paper outlines the early stages of a research study which incorporated a design-based research methodology to inform the planning and development of an online, self-paced resource for postgraduate students and their supervisors. Once the needs of these two groups were identified through regular focus groups, the findings from these collaborations, along with literature review findings, informed the structural framework of an online resource known as The Researcher's Little Helper.

Quo Vadis: Doctoral Programs In Private Non-Profit Higher Education? The View From Two Providers, Juhani Tuovinen, Graham Buxton, Stephen Spence, Anthony Williams

Anthony Williams

In order to provide high level research and postgraduate education opportunities in the widest possible range of contexts, private non-profit higher education providers (PNHEPs) have developed doctoral program offerings outside the university system. We discuss the nature of these programs, their origins, quality control mechanisms and current trajectories. We also explore the advantages and benefits of private doctoral programs along with their challenges and limitations. Participants in the provision of private non-profit doctoral programs with a Christian ethos discuss these issues in this paper, dealing with both professional and research doctorates. Apart from the limitations arising from working outside the …

Research: What Potential Does It Hold For Teacher Practitioners?, Anthony Williams, Peter Kilgour

Anthony Williams

No abstract provided.

Research-Informed Guidelines For The Development Of Adaptively-Released Assessment Feedback (Araf) Strategies In Higher Education, Lindsay Morton, Alexandra Johnson, Anthony Williams, Maria T. Northcote

Anthony Williams

Assessment feedback has the potential to significantly impact on learning; this can be in the form of quantitative or qualitative feedback, or both. While assessment feedback is intended to provide students with insight into how their learning has progressed against learning outcomes, exploratory research into the impact of assessment feedback has found that students pay more heed to numeric grades than qualitative comments, despite the latter having more potential to positively impact learning. This paper reports on a project, funded by the Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT), to determine the impact of feedback strategies on students’ learning. Academic staff …

The Lived Experience Of Online Educators: Insights From Construction Management, William Sher, Anthony Williams, Maria T. Northcote

Anthony Williams

Academics in higher education institutions often experience the conflicting demands of teaching, research and administration. With the growth of online education these staff are frequently required to design, develop, teach, facilitate and, in some cases, administer online courses. Cumulatively these additional tasks challenge academics, not only in terms of the personal professional development but also in accommodating the range of tasks expected of them. This paper reports the findings of a study which investigated the lived experience of construction management academics teaching at universities in Australia. The study adopted a lived experience research approach that enabled the lives of construction …

Supporting Construction Management Education: Examining The Impact Of Leadership, Management And Staff Development, Willy Sher, Anthony Williams, Maria T. Northcote

Anthony Williams

Universities in Australia face a range of challenges as they renew curricula. Several of these arise from the federal government’s compliance monitoring entities which focus on academic standards and quality assurance. In addition, the sector is experiencing increased emphasis on research performance and postgraduate education. Against this backdrop, this paper examines academic leadership, management and staff development, and considers the implications of these processes on construction management higher education. This paper draws on data gathered from surveys, interviews and focus groups with leaders in construction-related academic disciplines across Australia, and provides a critical review of their attitudes and concerns. The …

Group-Work: Does It Have To Be That Bad?, Anthony Williams, L Henry, R Tucker, N Abassi

Anthony Williams

Many accreditation bodies and universities require the graduate attribute of “an ability to work in teams” or to “effectively collaborate”. Students invariably dislike working in groups maintaining that “malingerers ride on the back” of those students who work hard and contribute effectively to the outcomes of the group or team. This is the context in which an ALTC/OLT project was established, the project is to consider ways of enhancing group-work in Architecture and design related disciplines. The project has identified the issues associated with group-work, from the perspective of student and lecturer, and has begun to develop strategies to overcome …

Professional Development Of Research Supervisors: A Capacity-Building, Participatory Framework, Kevin Petrie, Gina Lemke, Anthony Williams, Brett G. Mitchell, Maria T. Northcote, Malcolm Anderson, Kayle De Waal

Anthony Williams

The professional development of supervisors of higher degree research students is growing in importance and undergoing change, based on the demand for timely completion of higher degrees and the Australian federal government’s quality agenda driving improvement of practice. Research has informed the design of research supervision frameworks within large universities (Carton & Kelly, 2014; Luca et al., 2013) but smaller institutions face different issues, including the challenge of developing an active research culture.

This paper reports on the outcomes of an institution-wide project that was conducted in a small, private higher education institution involving the development and …

Does The Type Of Assessment Feedback I Give Make A Difference?: The Impact Of Qualitative And Quantitative Assessment Feedback, Maria T. Northcote, Anthony Williams, Phil Fitzsimmons, Peter W. Kilgour

Anthony Williams

Feedback provided to postgraduate students about their assessment tasks influences the way in which they reflect on their learning and themselves personally. In particular, the nature of the feedback and the way in which its dissemination is sequenced and timed can further impact how students incorporate, or don't incorporate, assessment advice into their future learning, a process referred to by Duncan (2007) as "feed-forward". Despite the value placed on assessment feedback by academic teaching staff, it often has minimal impact on students' learning (Sadler, 2010). Past research into the impact of qualitative and quantitative feedback on student learning established that …