LEARNING & TEACHING

The following programs and activities are particularly relevant for ongoing academic staff.

The UNSW Network in Learning and Teaching (UNILT) is a bold and original initiative providing ongoing opportunities for learning and teaching staff development for all UNSW staff. Its originality lies in the fact that the workshops offered by UNILT are facilitated by staff from throughout UNSW - that is, those whose everyday jobs are involved in student learning. UNILT workshops emphasise the sharing of experiences, ideas, and strategies among colleagues.

UNILT complements other programs, such as Foundations of University Learning and Teaching (FULT), in providing staff with opportunities for ongoing reflection, exploration, and development of learning and teaching. The program of workshops addresses issues that are of immediate concern to both students and staff.

A major appeal of UNILT workshops is that they are facilitated by cross-disciplinary teams. For example, one of the two workshops held so far on Small-group teaching was facilitated by a team consisting of senior lecturers from Law, English, and Physics. Facilitators bring different experiences and different disciplinary applications to the workshops. Each team is supported throughout the design and presentation of the workshops by the Learning and Teaching @ UNSW.

Learning & Teaching @ UNSW are currently developing support for staff in the design, development, evaluation and ongoing improvement of programs, courses and workshops (including incorporating peer review and curriculum mapping within programs) to be provided from 2007 onwards.

The Australian Teaching and Learning Council(ALTC) has funded a two year project to investigate Curriculum Development in Studio Teaching in the disciplines of art, architecture and design. The project aims to address the following questions:

What is Studio and how does it contribute to student learning?
What models of studio teaching are currently used in each discipline area in Australia?
How and why have models changed over time?
Which models are considered most effective in terms of a variety of student learning outcomes?
What key indicators can be identified to assess good learning outcomes in a studio experience?
How can the variety of approaches to Studio inform future curriculum development and resourcing across the sector?

The project is a collaboration with a team from The University of Queensland, RMIT University, The University of Tasmania, with UNSW as the lead institution.

Targeted orientation sessions and training workshops have been designed for staff taking on specific roles in the new Medicine program.

Learning & Teaching @ UNSW seeks to facilitate and nurture a community of staff interested in all aspects of the Scholarship of Learning and Teaching (SoLT) and supporting the development of SoLT across the campus. This includes raising awareness of the possibilities for SoLT, encouraging research into learning and teaching, providing opportunities for cross-disciplinary encounters and conversations to promote SoTL activities, and identifying opportunities for staff to turn their practice in learning and teaching into scholarly activities.

The scholarship of learning and teaching emphasises an evidence-based approach to learning and teaching practice as well as a critically reflective stance on practice, evidence, and the scholarly literature. It should be open to review and critique by peers and accessible for exchange and use by members of a scholarly community. The scholarship of learning and teaching always has as its goal the improvement of student learning. Questions about student learning in and across disciplines can form the basis of research which in turn can be communicated through research publications.

The Science Learning and Teaching Interest Group (SLATIG) facilitates communication between EdSquad members and academic staff who are particularly interested in teaching issues, and the Dean of Science; maintaining the critical mass needed for collective innovation in teaching and evolution of curricula within the Faculty; organised and implemented a number of change processes aimed at supporting long-term improvement in learning and teaching standards within the Faculty of Science and the University as a whole.

SNUSE was formed in 2004 as a result of the Science EdSquad bringing together academics interested in Learning and Teaching in Science to establish a collaborative group in the Sydney basin. This group was formed with representatives from the University of New South Wales, University of Sydney, University of Technology, University of Western Sydney and Macquarie University. It is envisaged that this group would be similar to the Effective Learning and Teaching Conferences and networks already established in Brisbane and Perth.

The Graduate Certificate in University Learning and Teaching (GCULT) is an accredited program available to teaching staff at UNSW. It is offered through the School of Public Health and Community Medicine and is coordinated by and located in Learning and Teaching @ UNSW.

The program is designed to meet the needs of busy teachers from diverse teaching settings. Courses in the program include one or more workshops together with related readings, and are designed to be interactive and user-friendly. They have been crafted to model a wide variety of good teaching practices, with specialist teaching staff drawn from across UNSW. Assessment tasks are designed to encourage participants to reflect on their actual teaching practice and consider how this might be improved, informed by selected material from the research literature.

Participants commence the program by attending the staff development workshop "Foundations of University Learning and Teaching" (FULT) - which is the workshop for the first *core course in the program

The Graduate Certificate will be awarded after satisfactory completion of 4 courses, 2 core and 2 electives. These will usually be taken over at least three semesters. Available courses are listed below:

Core:
*PHCM9401 Introduction to University Learning and Teaching
PHCM9402 Student Learning in Higher Education

Electives:
PHCM9403 Teaching Strategies for Effective Learning
PHCM9404 Course Planning in Higher Education
PHCM9405 Innovations in Education
PHCM9406 Educational Technology in Learning & Teaching
PHCM9407 Student Assessment in Higher Education.

All candidates are expected to be actively engaged in teaching in higher education at UNSW.

Learning & Teaching @ UNSW supports the use of research driven, innovative and responsive educational strategies and technologies. A range of events, online resources and workshops are provided to staff and students to enhance the ability of the University to provide an excellent educational experience for students.

The Australian School of Business at UNSW offers support and professional development in learning and teaching for staff, including in support in relation to e-learning.

The COFA Online Course Author Fellowship Program supports academic and industry professionals in designing and developing quality undergraduate and postgraduate online courses in art and design. Influenced by many examples of interesting online initiatives both nationally and internationally, the program was developed to allow course authors both the time and support necessary to acquire skills and understanding essential to quality course design and online facilitation. The Fellowship program is a collaborative endeavour between COFA Online staff, the Online Course Author fellows, and various learning and teaching professionals such as the staff of Learning and Teaching @ UNSW and the UNSW Library. A key component of the program is the building of a community of practice amongst past and present Course Author Fellows and COFA Online staff. This is facilitated by considerable opportunity for peer review of developing courses, in both online and face-to-face discussions.

Regular face-to-face discussions take place at monthly workshops provided for Course Author Fellows. The themes addressed in these workshops include online learning and teaching, writing course descriptions, designing an aligned course – developing and aligning course aims and outcomes, learning and teaching activities, and assessment tasks, clarity of written materials for online delivery, embedding information literacy into course content and assessment, and so on. To date the Fellowship has grown to over 25 academic and professional staff from a variety of creative disciplines, who have written and teach a suite of 30 fully online undergraduate courses.

In 2007 COFA Online launched its new Master of Cross-Disciplinary Art and Design degree, which has built upon the learning and teaching research and experience of the undergraduate program. The coursework postgraduate degree aims to bring together students from around the world to learn collaboratively in a cross-disciplinary creative online environment, supported by guest lectures from a range of well known cross-disciplinary industry professionals.

COFA Online’s contributions to student learning and teaching have been recognised through a Carrick Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning – ‘For pioneering internationally recognised best practice in online education in the creative arts and design’, and by a commendation from the Australian University Quality Agency (AUQA) – ‘AUQA commends UNSW for good practice in systematisation of online delivery in the College of Fine Arts and innovation in online collaborative…’.

The Graduate Research School provides training and resources for postgraduate research student supervisors. Training and resources currently offered include:

The First Year Coordinators Network was established in 2005 to provide staff with an opportunity to share issues and strategies and develop their practice collaboratively with colleagues. The First Year Coordinators Network contributed to the development of the First Year Teaching website which aims to support staff involved in first year learning and teaching.

A primary vehicle for bringing together first year coordinators and is the monthly Learning and Teaching Nuts and Bolts Sessions run by Learning & Teaching @ UNSW in collaboration with Faculty staff (see below for details).

Learning & Teaching @ UNSW supports a number of learning and teaching communities at the university such as the First Year Coordinators network and staff who have completed the Foundations of University Learning and Teaching (FULT) program. The Learning and Teaching Nuts and Bolts Sessions aim to bring these communities together on a regular basis for informal lunchtime sessions to share "themed" learning and teaching ideas, to develop practical strategies, and to hear from academics who have interesting or innovative approaches in dealing with particular learning and teaching issues.