Recent Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) projects

HERG has led, and been a partner in, a number of recent ALTC projects. Some of these are outlined below.

Coalface subject co-ordinators - the missing link to building leadership capacities in the academic supply chain (Leadership Program 2008-2011)

Associate Professor Judy Nagy was the project leader for this grant, which sought to shine the spotlight on the leadership role and capabilities of subject/unit co-ordinators in higher education. These are the people with leadership and management responsibility for running the constituent subject or unit components of courses or programs of study. This represents the local coalface level of educational leadership. Subject co-ordinators represent the largest group of staff within universities that directly interact with students and whom have a direct responsibility for the student learning experience. As part of their role subject co-ordinators have the greatest potential to influence innovation in curriculum design, unit management and resources used in the learning environment to create a progressive and dynamic learning environment.

The project aims were to:

• examine the complexities of the subject coordinator leadership role
• develop a desired profile for the role
• implement professional development interventions to enhance leadership capacity in the role
• disseminate results by aggregating the programs into a resource kit with partner institutions, through linkages with other relevant and active ALTC Leadership projects, and across the sector as a resource package

The project was a collaboration between Deakin University, the University of Southern Queensland, Edith Cowan University and Victoria University.

Project outcome
Website: Coalface subject coordinators - the missing link to building leadership capacities in the academic supply chain

Building academic staff capacity for using eSimulations in professional education for experience transfer (Competitive Grant 2008-2010)

Dr Dale Holt was part of the project team developing applications for e-simulations in teaching and learning contexts. e-Simulations are capable of immersing learners in 'authentic' e-learning environments, providing innovative and valid teaching and assessment that is seamlessly interwoven in the process of skill acquisition and experience transfer. Emerging approaches to e-simulations have the potential to address various issues in regard to learning subtle or complex skills normally learnt from direct experience, as well as the dissemination of good teaching practices easily adopted by academic staff.

Dissemination of eSimulations for sector-wide improvements to flexible learning had yet to be addressed. This project addressed this, aligning educational, technical and evaluation strengths from Deakin, RMIT and Charles Sturt universities, to build academic and professional staff capacities for the local development and use of an already successful approach to simulating professional experiences for student learning.

Project outcome
Website: DeakinSims - Our Experiences in Learning Experience Design

Strategic leadership for institutional teaching and learning centres: Developing a model for the 21st century (Leadership Program 2007-2009)

Dr Dale Holt was joint project leader for a project that sought to identify common factors in the effective strategic leadership of central organisational structures to enhance long-term learning and teaching performance and to illustrate how these factors are managed contextually in a selection of contemporary university settings in Australian higher education. The project was undertaken collaboratively by six universities of different organisational types (missions, visions, geographical make-up and educational profiles) that have some form of central Teaching and Learning Centre to deal systemically with broad sectoral pressures and their own respective internal challenges. It was within this context that the project focused on strategic leadership.

The primary aim was to develop a model of leadership that is anticipatory, innovative and creative, strategic and contingent that directs particular professional development and approaches in support of central groups as they confront the challenges of the 21st Century.

Project outcome
Website: Strategic leadership for institutional teaching and learning centres: developing a model for the 21st century

The Teaching Quality Indicators Project 2008/2009

Deakin has participated in the Teaching Quality Indicators (TQI) project, focused on the reward and recognition of quality teaching, and in particular, of teaching that engage(s) students. Deakin University was one of eight institutions to participate in the pilot phase. Deakin's participation in the project was led by Professor Marcia Devlin, assisted by Ms Jennifer Brockett and Ms Lise Baker.
This project focused on rewarding and recognising quality teaching in higher education through systematic implementation of indicators and metrics on teaching and teacher effectiveness. The project facilitated a number of outcomes in the specific dimension of teaching and teacher effectiveness on which Deakin has concentrated efforts - student engagement.

The outcomes achieved from the project, or towards which the project contributed to date have comprised:

• The option to include student engagement in reports for the Deakin Teaching Performance Incentive Fund allocation;
• The commencement of collection of valid, reliable data on student engagement;
• The inclusion of scholarship and research around student engagement in the university's higher education research agenda;
• The expansion of the teaching-related criteria on which promotion decisions are made to include the scholarship of, and research into, teaching and learning, incorporating student engagement;
• The addition to the internal Strategic Teaching and Learning Grant Scheme (STALGS) guidelines of specific encouragement of projects that could contribute to improved student engagement; and
• The inclusion of student engagement in the collective university community lexicon and discussion.

While the final report for the project was submitted in December 2008, HERG has since embarked on meeting the future plans highlighted in this final report. Some of these are: further changes to promotion policies and procedures; the creation of documents and resources that encourage and support quality teaching and student engagement; the development of a website as a central repository for the new resources; and raising awareness and understanding of student engagement across the university.

Project outcome
Devlin, M. and Baker, L. The Deakin University Student Engagement website

Peer Review of Teaching in Australian Higher Education (Priority Grants scheme) 2008

Professor Marcia Devlin represented Deakin University on this project as a team member. Working with colleagues from the University of Wollongong and the University of Melbourne, this project aimed to encourage and support greater participation in peer review of teaching. The project created a resource to assist institutions to implement policies and programs of peer review of teaching. To this end the project investigated current practices nationally, engaged the higher education community in discussion of the issue, and developed resources appropriate to the Australian context.

The project included:

• A national survey of peer review of teaching activities in Australian higher education, with detailed responses received from 26 institutions;
• An Expert Workshop where colleagues with experience and expertise in institutional leadership and the implementation of programs, including programs of peer review came together for a day long meeting;
• Significant input into the development of a 'framework' for peer review by staff drawn from 11 Australian universities;
• The production and distribution of a comprehensive handbook on peer review of teaching, designed to support institutions in the development and embedding of programs of peer review;
• A full-day Colloquium (21 November 2008) involving 85 participants from 29 universities, including 8 participants from Deakin University.

Project outcome
Harris, K., Farrell, K., Bell, M., Devlin, M. and James, R. (2008). Peer Review of Teaching in Australian Higher Education: A handbook to support institutions in developing and embedding effective policies and practices. Australian Learning and Teaching Council, Sydney, Australia. ISBN: 978073404459