The Teaching and Learning Agenda

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The Teaching and Learning Agenda

• Goal one
• The bigger picture
• Policy priorities

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Goal One

• The University of Sydney will maintain and
  enhance its position as an outstanding provider
  of high quality undergraduate and postgraduate
  teaching

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The proper function of a university is the
imaginative acquisition of knowledge A
university is imaginative or it is nothing at
least nothing useful.
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The bigger picture

• Universal higher education
• Funding base
• Competition, de-regulation
• Mode 1 -gt Mode 2
• New QA systems

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The bottom line

• Change is not optional

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Mode 1 Mode 2
Individuals Teams Academic Interaction
with control over users controls direction
direction Disciplines Problems Quality
control Quality control through peer more
broadly review based (Coaldrake,
1999, after Gibbons, 1998)
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Mode 2

• Client / community needs or dept. convenience?
• Issues-based / PBL
• Flexible learning / integration of I.T.
• Relevance less overload
• Generic skills, communication

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AUQA

• Periodic audits
• Monitor internal QA processes
• Appropriateness of plans
• Rigour of mechanisms
• Effectiveness of implementation
• Compare international standards

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Internal context

• Adapt to survive premium on agility and
  flexibility
• Build on what we value
• Targets linked to strategic goals
• Tyranny of the or
• Beat yesterday good enough never is
• Sustain and migrate
• Incentives and rewards

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Policy directions

• Improve total student experience
• Meet challenge of relevance
• Increase efficiency
• Reward performance
• Maintain core values

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Improving the student experience

• New patterns of assessment and teaching
• Flexible learning, I.T. and generic skills
• First year environment

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Better doctors Mode 2 in practice

• Health needs of community
• Graduate entry student mix
• Problems and people integrated with science
  (PBL)
• Assessment, workload, relevance, generic
  skills
• I.T. (feedback, independence)
• Evidence-based change
• New research partnerships

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(No Transcript)
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Basics of USyd teaching management scheme

• Faculty T L Plans
• Central PI data
• Monitoring and reporting
• Funding incentives
• Role of central TL committee
• Other mechanisms

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University Strategic Plan
University Teaching and Learning Plan
Faculty Teaching and Learning Strategic
Operational Plans
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Central Performance Indicator Website
Annual Course Reports
Faculty TL Plans
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Use of PIs

• Monitor change, identify early problems
• University publication recognise achievement
• Teaching Dividend
• TL committee annual visits to Faculties

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Performance Indicators (quantitative)

• Student progress rate
• 1st year retention
• Student experience
• Graduate satisfaction
• Graduate outcomes
• Improvement scores

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Funding for performance

• Teaching Dividend (70) - based on relative
  TPI scores
• Fund for Innovation (20) - contestable
• Scholarship Index (10) - output based

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Scholarship index

• Proportion of dividend
• Individual allocation
• Departmental allocation
• Peer reviewed grants, publications, IT resources
  related to university teaching
• Weighted units/sum of weighted units

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Intended outcomes

• Positioning for future national QA processes/
  funding changes
• Strengthen competitive position
• Marketing, reputation and image
• Reward and recognise performance
• Encourage migration of good ideas
• Build on whats valued
• Improve quality of student learning - core
  business