Learning & Teaching This Year

Professor Abby Cathcart

Greetings from the ANU Learning & Teaching Day: Connect & Inspire. Professor Abby Cathcart, QUT Director Student Success & Teaching Advancement, addressed putting joy back into university study. She pointed out the difficulties with online learning during the pandemic. As she pointed out this was made worse by it being used as an emergency measure, and provided a vision for a path out of this conundrum. One off the wall idea was to shut down the learning management system for six months, but a more practical one was to require senior academics to teach. 

What resonated with me in Professor  Cathcart's presentation was communicating to new academics that teaching is a scholarly endeavor. This doesn't require every academic to become an educational specialist, but they need to learn a little. Another point I liked was that we need to do less as teachers. Teachers, and students can become overwhelmed by the online engagement required. When learning course design one of the approaches I took was to estimate the time required by the teacher, and the student, for each activity, and ensuring this fitted in a time budget for the course.

However, I was not convinced by Professor Cathcart call for joy in teaching. Rather I suggest academics should act professionally. They need to ensure they are competent to teach, and in doing so be able to do it efficiently, without overwhelming themselves, or their students. The average academic should not innovate in their teaching, instead they should learn researched, proven methods. I was bemused and frustrated during COVID-19 by academics proudly reporting how they were inventing ways to teach online, which actually had been known and used for at least a decade.

Professor Cathcart then addressed the issue of unngaged studnts. She [pointed out that just under half of studnts said they preferred blended learning, but most did not collaborate online. As an international online student for three years I experienced a deep sense of loneliness. What helped were group projects, where I was required to collaborate with other students. 

Professor Cathcart mentioned clubs and societies at university which help with engagement. However, a student has only a limited amount of time for study, squeezed in between work, family, and other responsibilities. Any time spent in extra curricular actives will therefore come from study time. As a graduate student I did not participate in any social activities, as I was there to get through the program as quickly as possible. My view was that social activity risked distraction from study, and failure. This is a reasonable, and ration approach for students. As a result, I suggest collaborative activities have to be built into the formal compulsory, assessed program. 

Professor Cathcart cited Taylor et al 2022 relating emergency online teaching to the stages of grieving. She pointed out that learning how to teach online can make the teacher's view of teaching online more positive. As someone how spent seven years being trained to teach, and particularly online, I can understand this point of view. However, for those for whom research is the priority, it is very difficult to convince them to do a whole lot of study and await enlightenment. 

A lighted point came in the presentation when Professor Cathcart discussed how teaching could bring joy for the teacher. She quipped that discussion of joy was always illustrated with a middle aged woman doing yoga, but that was not her. 

In her introduction, Grady Venviolle mentioned hat it was great to see parents with the new students on campus. I found this a little odd, as I was escorted to primary school for the first day, but the idea a parent would accompany me to university seems weird. Also I did not set foot on the campus of the last two universities I studied at. One was more than 1,000 km away, the on the other side of the planet. Having a campus is useful for a university, but not something every student can access. The challenge is how do we provide students with options, wherever they are.

Learning to Teach and Assess at the ANU Early Career Academic Forum

The Australian National University is holding an "Early Career Academic Forum", 24 ^to 25 July 2018. This is run by the ANU Network of Early Career Teachers, Academics and Researchers ("NECTAR"). This is aimed at new staff starting their career and Phd students considering a career. I will be facilitating a discussion of Improving Teaching and Learning at ANU.

"Program Highlights:
Tuesday, 24 July

• Workshop: Indigenous perspective inclusive/sensitive pedagogy
• World Cafe style Morning Tea with discussions around Learning to Teach and Assess, PDRs and promotions, challenges faced by Early Career Academics and many more.
• Roundtable with Marnie Hughes-Warrington, DVC (Academic), and Grady Venville, PVC (Education).
• Workshop: ANU Teaching and Learning Vision with Grady Venville
• Research Presentation on ECA Employability
• Panel: Job Security. Confirmed panel members: Sue Thomas (CEO, ARC), Mike Calford (Provost, ANU), Denise Ferris (Head, School of Art & Design) and Lyndall Strazdins (National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, ANU).

Wednesday, 25 July:

• Panel: Overturning the obstacles of sexual misconduct, harassment, hostility and practices of inequity within the university. Confirmed panel members: Dean of Staff, Alyssa Shaw (PARSA President), Renee Hamilton (Universities Australia) and Jamiyl Mosley (Head of Burton and Garran Hall).
• Roundtable with VC Brian Schmidt.
• AGM
• Workshop: “What to do when things go wrong” with Gail Frank (Adviser to staff, ANU)."

From: Early Career Academic Forum, NECTAR, 2018

ps: An interesting future option for ANU is microcredentialing, as mentioned by the VC at a Senate inquiry recently. 

Improving Teaching and Learning at ANU

ANU has released " A Vision for Teaching and Learning at The Australian National University" prepared by consultant Diane Joseph (2017). This recommends consulting the University community on a Teaching and Learning Strategy. Teaching development and building programs were two areas to be explored.

The draft Vision for Teaching and Learning at the ANU is (p. 3):

"Our students are future ready, capable of solving problems not yet imagined to improve their lives, the lives of others and their communities."

 This is covered by four pillars (p. 4):

1. "Determined Students
2. Inspiring Academics 
3. An Enriching Environment
4. A Connected Community
5. High quality teaching and learning is underpinned by the ANU values"

The interesting question then is how to achieve these. There are nineteen recommendations of the report (p. 4), including:

"... 4.1 Identify, encourage and support lead practitioners to model and share effective collaborative learning pedagogies in the CLE Building ...
5.1 Develop a Teaching and Learning Strategy ...
6.1 Support and encourage distinctive approaches to education, including technology-enhanced learning ...
7.1 Develop a Teaching Professional Development and Resourcing Plan ...
8.1 Identify requirements for potential building programs to enable the Vision for Teaching and Learning ..."

Suggestions for the ANU Teaching and Learning Vision

As a member of the ANU community (former student, donor and honorary lecturer) with an interest in teaching, I have six suggestions for advancing the vision:

1. Increase teaching effectiveness with good course design
2. Increase student engagement with real-world challenges
3. Teach university academics to teach
4. Give teaching staff a modern student experience
5. Personalize the student experience without reducing the student to staff ratio
6. Prove flexible new buildings and adapt old ones 

In detail:

1. Increase teaching effectiveness with good course design

Teaching effectiveness can be increased by designing courses and programs using project design techniques. First consult the prospective employers as to what skills and knowledge graduates will require. Then translate those requirements into learning objectives.  Design assessment to test for those objectives. Lastly provide educational materials and learning activities to prepare students for the assessment tasks. The time of the staff and students need to be carefully budgeted to achieve the required assessment results.

An example of this top-down design is the course "ICT Sustainability", offered as COMP7310 by ANU and COMP635 by Athabasca University, Canada. This is designed around the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA), used for international accreditation of computer professionals. The SFIA skills are mapped to learning objectives in the course, with major assignments for each objective. There are small weekly exercises to help students build the skills and knowledge needed for the assignments.

The time needed for students to undertake readings, videos, quizzes and discussion activities where estimated for ICT Sustainability and budgeted to fit in the available study time. This included an estimate of the words in readings multiplied by the average reading time of a graduate student (from published research). The time needed for the instructor to run the course and conduct assessment was also budgeted. In this course lectures are not used and the weekly work is by automated quizzes and peer assessment, to free up the teacher's time to help students.

2. Increase student engagement with real-world challenges

Student engagement can be increased by providing real-world problems for students to solve and authentic assessment (not end of term examinations). Every task we ask students to undertake can be mapped to the problem solving exercises they will have to undertake. To keep students on task, learning skills and knowledge for this challenge, they can be given frequent small assessment tasks with rapid feedback.

The students in ANU TechLauncher have to work in teams building an engineering or software solution for a real client. Students are evaluated on their teamwork and problem solving by their peers, the tutors and the client.
Students also have the option of working on a start-up in the Innovation ACT competition. This approach has been utilized at other universities, such as UBC Electrical and Computer Engineering, with their "New Venture Design" course (APSC 486).

3. Teach University Academics to Teach

Those teaching at university need to know how to teach. However, university academics are reluctant to enroll in conventional classroom based training courses. The same approaches used to improve student engagement can be applied to staff: providing real-world problems to solve in the workplace, with authentic assessment.

Education for staff can be conducted using the techniques the institution aims to use for students. In particular learning should be primarily on-line, supplemented with blended and flipped classes in flat floor classrooms. Group activities, capstone projects and e-portfolios should be used for learning and assessment. There should be a minimum of lectures and no paper based examinations.

Short courses and online tips can be provided (ACU have some good ones). However, as with school and  vocational teachers, those teaching at universities would benefit from having formal qualifications in education. The aim should be to have junior teaching staff with an AQF Level 8 Graduate Certificate in education (or a Certificate IV in training for those who also teach in the VET sector), mid-level academics a Diploma of Education (or Graduate Diploma), and senior academics a Bachelor Degree or Masters Degree of Education (Coursework).

Staff should also be encouraged to join learned societies, such as HEA and HERDSA, as a supplement to formal qualifications in education.

4. Give Teaching Staff a Modern Student Experience

Local workplaces should provide support and encouragement for staff to undertake study for educational qualifications. In particular staff need to do "Dog-Fooding": experience what it is like to be a university student in the modern environment, so they have an understanding of the pressures imposed on their students. Staff on education courses should be encouraged to undertake projects for their studies in the workplace and to immediately apply what they have learned in their teaching. It should be noted that academics who supervise research students are also engaged in education.

5. Personalize the student experience without reducing the student to staff ratio

The student to staff ratio is unrelated to the quality of learning. High quality education can be provided with large classes, if the learning is well designed by qualified educators using proven techniques. Providing realistic tasks for students to undertake in groups, with the use of peer feedback and assessment, supported by automated tools helps.

6. Prove Flexible New Buildings and Adapt Old Ones

Interactive group learning requires new classrooms. Tiered lectures theaters are unsuitable for interactive group activities. Large rooms with flat floors, and preferably with furniture on wheels, are required. These can be new built, or adoptions of existing buildings.

An example of such a facility is the Auditorium at Fitzwilliam College Cambridge (UK). Electrically operated, retractable tiered searing allows rooms to be used for flat floor teaching and, and at the push of a button, convert to a lecture theater. This design is now being implemented for the ANU Kambri Development.

 However, the new teaching spaces will require staff to be trained in new teaching techniques, including the on-line elements which support the classroom experience. Also this may require some minor items of equipment.

Experience with the existing temporary large flat floor classrooms at ANU shows that a room with 300 students working in groups is feasible, but requires good teaching team coordination. Some of the equipment can be low tech, such as a whistle to get student's attention when they were deep in discussion.

The recently opened Foreign Affairs Diplomatic Academy  shows that an exiting office building can be converted to attractive flexible flat floor classrooms. The Academy's impressive new premises have large rooms which can be divided for smaller classes.

See also:

1. Dogfooding: Learning to Design for International Students by Being an International online Student, 2017
2. A Green Computing Professional Education Course Online, 2012
3. Digital Teaching In Higher Education (e-book), 2017.
4. Educating the Future Workforce, Submission  to the Senate Select Committee on the Future of Work and Workers, 2018.
5. Education for Sustainable Development, Submission to the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), March 2018.