Last week, Professor Genevieve Bell, the Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University announced an ANU realignment: Renew ANU, to address budget pressures. Many Australian universities, and those in other countries, are experiencing similar pressures. This is to suggest some ways changes could be implemented to improve the education delivery by universities generally. This follows the broad approach I suggested in a submission to the Review of Higher Education. As with that submission, these suggestions are are my own, and may not represent the views of any organisation I am associated with.
New Courses on Technology and Society
ANU plans for consolidation are more modest that those in South Australia, where two universities are merging (University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia). The ANU has proposed to include the Fenner School of Environment and Society, the Mathematical Sciences Institute, and Centre for Public Awareness of Science in the ANU College of Engineering, Computing and Cybernetics to create the ANU College of Systems and Society. I suggest this creates the opportunity for new cross fertilization between the schools. Courses and programs could be offered on technical aspects of environmental challenges, between the comping, engineering and environment schools.
Courses on technology and society could be offered as part of conventional degree programs, as well as for microcredentials, and in service professional development. In particular such courses could address a need in the Australian Public Service for staff with technical and policy skills. This could be done using the format of courses such as COMP7310 ICT Sustainability. Originally commissioned by the Australian Computer Society for in service professional development, to be delivered online, the course was modified slightly for ANU computer science graduate students, then modified again for an on campus option (Worthington, 2012). The same approach was applied in 2019 for delivery of part of the ANU Techlauncher program (Worthington, 2019). This allowed a switch from campus based to online delivery when COVID-19 struck in 2020, with no changes in content or assessment (and a switch back to on campus).
Such courses can set context, and pose questions for students to address, rather than provide large quantities of technical content, which require constant revision. These courses can also use small regular assessment items to keep students working between major project tasks.Role in Teacher Tech Education
The ANU Centre for Public Awareness of Science is respected for its education of science communicators. This could be expanded to cover the teaching of science and the use of technology in teaching and training. This could avoid duplicating programs offered in training in the vocational sector and university school teaching programs, addressing advanced requirements. This could be in cooperation with the university's existing Centre for Learning & Teaching, in a similar way to the schools of computing and engineering cooperation with the Careers & Employability unit to teach students about careers. The unit's specialist staff would provide subject matter expertise, while the school staff oversee assessment. The teaching would be aligned with professional requirements for engineering and computing, using standards such as the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA).
New Teaching Methods
Immersive Reality
The ANU School of Computing's Escape Room provides an example of low cost IR, being essentially a room dressed up with colored lights, but using very advanced pedagogy (Pereira Nunes, et.Al, 2024). The Escape Room is colocated with "The Hive" a simulation of a computer project workspace for Techlauncher Project students (Browne, et Al, 2020).
Other Support for Experiential Learning
References
Cochrane, T. D., Narayan, V., Aiello, S., Alizadeh, M., Birt, J., Bone, E., ... & Worthington, T. (2022). Analysing mobile learning designs: A framework for transforming learning post-COVID. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 38(4), 1-21. https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.7997
