Friday, 12 September 2014

eResource: Curriculum Renewal


Good practice report: Curriculum Renewal from Uni. of Southern Queensland on Vimeo.

Curriculum Renewal Report

Report Link: http://www.olt.gov.au/resource-curriculum-renewal-2011

Context and eResource Development 

This report serves as an overview of the work funded by the ALTC in the area of curriculum renewal in higher education, making recommendations for future work in the area. At the time of writing the report, the ALTC has funded 40 completed projects and seven fellowships in this area. These are from various discipline areas such as biology, physics, chemistry, maths, histology, pharmacology, studio arts, music, teacher education, construction, computer science, ICT, new media, engineering, health, occupational therapy, philosophy, sociology, social work, psychology, and veterinary science. The outcomes of each are summarised in this report, along with a comprehensive literature review of published national and international research and practice in the areas of curriculum renewal in higher education (up to 2011).

Outcomes 

The projects, fellowships and literature included in this report suggest some much-needed changes for higher education in Australia. They are as follows:
  1. Creating clear and accessible career pathways for students during their higher education journey.
  2. Clearly articulating threshold graduate attributes or outcomes.
  3. Aligning education pathways to meet national and international industry needs.
  4. Emphasising the interdisciplinary, intercultural, and global nature of modern knowledge.
  5. Empowering graduates for real-world work and life environments.
  6. Equipping and developing staff to use and incorporate technology tools within the curriculum in a creative manner.
  7. Recognising the emerging needs and different learning styles of our increasingly diverse and international student cohort.
 The major theme that emerges from all these projects is the need for a change of culture and curricular processes, not just at the organisational level, but also at the fundamental level of the educators themselves, who deal with students every day, and are closest to the needs, aspirations, learning, and growth of the students. There is also a need for standardisation of both graduate attributes and assessment practices in line with real-world and industry needs. The literature review of the discussion and debate in this area reveals similar needs and issues worldwide. It has also been demonstrated that while technology-assisted learning and teaching along with industry engagement can enrich learners‘ learning and engagement if done right, it has the opposite effect on learning and teaching if the delivery is poorly executed.

Report Authors

 

Dr. Bhuva Narayan 
Bhuva is the Discipline Coordinator for Information & Knowledge Management and Digital and Social Media studies at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney. Bhuva is currently working on two research projects: one is funded by the Centre for Health Communications and focuses on the information practices around the self-management of information-intensive chronic health conditions such as diabetes; the other is funded by the AuDA Foundation and is exploring the development of an automated cyberbullying-detection system for social media.

Bhuva’s research is in the area of information ecologies and human learning, including information interactions and information behaviours in digital and social media.  Bhuva’s teaching interests are in the areas of Information Behaviour Theories, Information Research Methods, Information Cultures, User Experience Design, Information Architecture, and Digital Libraries. She is currently also working on a First Year Experience project to engage students in professional practice. 

Professor Sylvia Lauretta Edwards 
Sylvia’s career has focused on innovation in higher education and for 6 of the past 8 years Sylvia worked in executive roles leading faculty reorganisation to facilitate significant change in one university. She now works in the higher education sector as a consultant, mentor, advisor, and coach. A recipient of a prestigious Australian Award for University Teaching in 2006, Sylvia has received numerous QUT teaching performance and leadership awards.

Her research contributions include the development of The Net Lenses model: a relational model of students’ internet searching experiences, the co-development of the Six Frames for Information Literacy Education (Bruce, Edwards & Lupton, 2006), and the Reflective Model for Internet Searching (Edwards & Bruce, 2002). Her areas of expertise include: higher education leadership, T&L leadership, change management, curriculum renewal, coaching, and human information behaviour, information searching, phenomenography and variation theory.  She has published over 50 refereed publications and delivered over 40 academic and industry presentations. 

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