WIL Based Industry Pograms?

University of Canberra staff are talking about how they are Reimagining Plancent Project for health students at the Will Australia's "Creative, Modern and Celebrating WIL" workshop. This got me thinking, companies which require large numbers of staff might move the WIL in house, structuring a Vocation Degree around it.Companies which already offer to arrange WIL for universities could likewise now offer their own degrees. One field mentioned which could be a large market for this is NDIS services. While some of the services funded by the NDIS are provided by heavily regulated health professionals, many are not. These other areas could benefit from better education standards for staff, which could be provided via WIL.

AI and Work Integrated Learning

Greetings from the University of Canberra, where I am attending the NSW/ACT chapter of WIL Australia's "Creative, Modern and Celebrating WIL". Associate Professor Bonnie Dean, University of Wollongong, is taking us through the reality behind the hype about AI and jobs. She cited research showing that organisations are tending to look to existing staff for AI skills, rather than asking for it in job ads. Bonnie pointed out that Microsoft Copilot's terms of service say it is intended for entertainment and use at the user's own risk (which I suggest is likely illegal under Australian consumer law). Professor Dean noted how the last trend was cyber security qualifications and universities are no announcing AI initiatives.

Bonnie pointed out surveys which show most students see AI as useful, but worry about being accused of cheating, but don't get support from the university in how to use it. As AI is new and novel I can see the need for specific training, both for staff and students, about it. After a few years this will just be integrated into basic training for students. Particularly for WIL is important for students to get this extra training now. As an example, students need to have it explicitly explained that public tools retain the information they enter, so they should not include anything sensitive, private. 

 

Study Australia Industry Experience Program (SAIEP)

The Australian Government sponsors a Study Australia Industry Experience Program (SAIEP), delivered by industry partners. This is for international students studying in Australia. Practera offer businesses teams of 5 to 6 students working on a project. This is the same format commonly used by universities internally on student group projects, except that the emphasis is on completing the tasks online and students receive a certificate of completion, rather than a grade. 

Work Integrated Learning in the Age of AI

Next week I have been asked to help run some sessions at a symposium on Work Integrated Learning (WIL) for students of computing and related fields. It is a good time for this, as I just spent a semester tutoring four teams of students working on projects for clients. Also I mentored two groups of interns, one group working for private enterprise on AI projects, and the other working for government agencies. 

While I had mentored interns previously, and also mentor now entrants to the computing profession for the Australian Computer Society), I had not tutored the project students for some years. The group computer project course at the Australian National University ("Techlauncher"), was revamped this year, so I decided to tuor, to help bed in the new format & learn more about the new approach being used.

At the same time the concern over AI use at universities, and the debate over practical skills for students have not died down. To add to this, vocational degrees were added to the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) in February. This allows non-university educational institutions to offer degree level qualifications with more work integrated learning, or even entirely by WIL. Such a format is not new, and I learned computing only partly at a university, the Australian Bureau of Statistics hired trainers who came in and ran courses on site. I was paid to work downstairs part of the day, then go upstairs for training (on full pay).

As it happens I registered for an Eportfolios Australia "PARE" (Plan, act, reflect & eportfolio) session. I had assumed this was the usual webinar, but when it started, I discovered it was "Shut up and write" format. So I am writing. 

I am assisting with two sessions at the symposium: "Learning Systems: Canvas for WIL, Virtuous Loop", and "Accreditation requirements & Ungrading WIL". The "Virtuous Loop" is something some of my colleagues tell me they know about, so I will leave that to them.

Learning Systems: Canvas for WIL 

A few weeks ago I did the introductory training for the Canvas Learning Management System being introduced to ANU. Canvas seems very similar to Moodle, so should be suitable. My approach is to use the LMS as a place to provide the student with their instructions as to what to do, then collect the results. The actual learning happens elsewhere, outside the LMS. This approach works well with WIL, which clearly can't happen within the confines of the tools an LMS provides.

ePortfolios

This then raises the question of what other tools we can use to help the student with WIL. Given I am writing this during an ePortfolios Australia session, the most obvious is an ePortfolio. Canvas has an ePortfolio tool called "Folio". However, this is unlikely to have adequate versioning features to be usable. To be of use, we need to know when the student added what to their portfolio, including every edit,  for "show your work". Also we need to track the contributions of individual students in group projects, where they are assembling a jointly developed document. It is likely we will need to use tools like GitHub for this purpose. That will require training for non-computing students, unused to the concepts inherent in such tools.

Accreditation requirements & Ungrading WIL

Bodies such as the Australian Computer Society and Engineers Australia, accredit university courses. Common requirements of accreditation is for the student to have some group, work and project experience. I mentor interns who work individually at a real workplace and tutor group project students who work on a real project for a real client. In both cases there is scaffolding of the experience, to make it into a course. There are a few lectures, but the emphasis is on meeting with a mentor/tutor regularly. There are also assessed tasks to complete. These tasks are designed to be relevant to real world experience. Typically the students start by negotiating what they are going to do and submit a statement of work document, agreed with the client, for assessment. Also they typically end with a reflective work on what they did and learned from the experience. In between there are progress reports. In the case of internships, the assessor relies on reports from the client, as it is not feasible for them to assess the actual work the student does. In the case of group projects, the assessor may have more access to the work product, but even ... oops time is up ...

At this point, as per the PARE process, we stopped writing and had a few minutes discussion. I shared this document, up to this point. We discussed how to collect notes on what we had been doing for future use. This is very relevant to a discussion of how students document and provide evidence of, what they did in WIL. For assessment purposes we need that evidence, but it can't be too burdensome, for the student, their client, or the assessors. Ideally the evidence is captured as a byproduct of the WIL. This happens reasonably naturally for computer project students, who use online tools common in industry for software development. These tools timestamp every contribution by every team member, and provide statistics on their overall contribution. 

Grading WIL

Some WIL is not integrated. The student is required to undertake a set amount of work experience. A supervisor attests the student did the work. There is no detailed analysis of what they did, or how well. At the other extreme, a program like Techlauncher has assessors examining what each student does every week, and in more detail at checkpoints through the year. 

Typically in vocational education, students are assessed on a pass/fail (Competent/Not yet competent) basis. Even if there is a numerical grading, this is reduced to pass/fail at the end of the unit of study. The logic behind this is that the student is being assessed as being able to do a job. In some industries this is a legal requirement: no ticket, no job.  In contrast a university student is typically graded numerically on a 100 point scale, which is then reduced to a 4 to 7 level grade. The student's grades are aggregated to give a Grade Point Average  on a 4 or 7 point scale.

The course results and GPAs may be used internally as a requirement for students to progress in their program, or to apply for advanced study, but are of little or no value to outside employers. Given that WIL doesn't involve they type of learning of a typical academic course, they use of 100 point or even 7 point scale for assessment seem very artificial. The purpose of the exercise is not for the student to be excellent at working in a workplace, they can't be expected to achieve that ... opps time is up again. 

Conclusion

Having written about the topic stream of consciousness style, it is time to try to make some short, hopefully helpful, comments on WIL:

Learning Systems: Canvas for WIL 

LMS for Scaffolding

A learning management system is useful for providing structure for WIL. The unfamiliar and fragmented nature of WIL can be confusing for both students and staff. The LMS can provide a step by step checklist of who needs to do what, when, & a catalog of the tools and guides they need.  

Not Too Integrated

An LMS is not designed for WIL. A useful approach is to use the LMS to tell the student what they need to do, then have them go off and do it with specialised tools, but bring the evidence of what they did back to the LMS for assessment, and feedback. 

Most of the evidence of learning outcomes can achieved work products, rather than specially created academic artifacts. As an example, the client or supervisor can be asked to rate the student's performance. The work plans and output can be directly assessed. The tools used to record the student's work can be used to verify they were actually doing the work. As an example, tools such as GitHub record each time each team member contributed to the repository, timestamped. 

Accreditation requirements & Ungrading WIL

Accreditation authorities want to be assured the student achieved all skills and knowledge requirements at the set level. This can be difficult with WIL, as what the student does varies based on the client/supervisors' requirements. One way to meet the requirement is by adopting the approach of vocational education. Rather than assess how well the students achieved various tasks, and check they met an overall requirement, check they performed on each to the required level of competency. Numerical measures and scales can still be used, but what is important is the student achieved every requirement.

Canvas for WIL and Accreditation

This week I have been on training to use the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS). I have been using Moodle for 17 years, but Canvas doesn't look that different. At the same time I have been asked to contribute to a local event at ANU College of ANU College of Systems & Society on how to improve Work Integrated Learning (WIL). As I happened to be learning Canvas I have volunteered to lead a session on how it can be used for WIL. As I have been involved with accreditation for the Australian Computer Society (ACS) I also volunteer to contribute to a session on that. Here I am collecting my thoughts on the topic.  

There are specialised systems to help with experiential learning. Some of these are very specialised. As an example, I provided some advice on the development of the Student Practice Evaluation Form – Revised (SPEF-R) at The University of Queensland. This is used for occupational therapy students on placements. It has been used across Australia and is very useful for that purpose, but not applicable to other professional training. 

A LMS can't help with the difficult task of finding places for students to get experience. But they can help provide students with the familiar structure of a "course" with deliverables. Also underappreciated is to give staff some structure. These can be the workplace clients or supervisors of the students, but also the academic staff mentoring and assessment them. 

One idea which came up with Canvas training about quizzes was to use such simple tests to help orientate the students. I asked Microsoft Copilot to create a set of multiple choice questions, based on the ANU Techlauncher public description. Here is one of the questions:

Q: What is the primary goal of the TechLauncher program?

  A To develop advanced coding skills
  B To foster teamwork and project management skills
  C To learn about the latest technology trends
  D To prepare students for academic research

This may seems trivial, but it can be difficult to get students (and staff) out of the habit of seeing learning as about attending lectures.  

Assessment

The LMS can be used to lay out the milestones for the WIL, each with an assessed task. Rubrics can be used to clarify and simplify, the assessment. The student can see what they have to do, the assessor then indicates by ticking boxes on the rubric, how well they have done it. 

One challenge for universities is the form of assessment to be used. Vocational education would normally only use pass/fail grading (or "Competent/Not Yet Competent"). Universities tend to use a scale (and some accretion processes require this). However, perhaps on all of the tasks for WIL need to be graded finely. Small tasks can be pass/fail, with a few to grade more finely. 

Collaboration

I am most familiar with the ANU School of Computing's Techlauncher and Internships. Techlauncher has groups of students working for a client, whereas internships are individual. This semester I have been assigned a group of interns all at the same company and another all with the Australian Public Service. This provides mutual support for the students, and something which might be formalised, in a similar way to group projects. 

Accreditation

Accreditation bodies, such as ACS and Engineers Australia, need to be assured that every student achieves every learning outcome required from WIL. The risk is the university will simply send the student off to work and they will have AI write them a report. The LMS can help with assurance by showing there is a structure to the process. The evidence for each learning outcome can be recorded in the LMS, timestamped. This can be accompanied by a report from the workplace supervisor to say the student was there and performed, to the required standard. 

Assessing Student Team Project Work

 Greetings from the ANU Techlauncher "Sprint 1" assessment review. There are 12 tutors (mostly in person, a couple online) plus two convenors reviewing grades from assessment of the first assessed task for project students. There list a list of teams on the wall, with each tutor going trough their proposed graduate and comments for each team over the last few weeks. Issues with the nature of the project, problems with the client are addressed as we go along. The meeting has been going for two hours. This is a slow, often tedious, occasionally exciting, process as those involved argue over grades and techniques. Students, and the public, may not realize how much effort goes into grading, and how much this is an art, rather than a science. With projects for real clients, which are all different, there is no easy way to do this. 

Supporting students during placements

Dr. Romany Martin, University of Tasmania, talked just now on "Supporting allied health students during rural placements" in the regular ACEN Research Conversations webinar. It struck me how much there was in common with computer students on placements at small organisations. 

One issue not discussed was the problem of scale. Dr Martin mentioned a supervisor who personally delivered groceries to a student isolated at home with COVID-19, but you can't do that if you have many hundreds of students. One way to overcome that is with software. If provided some advice for development of the Student Practice Evaluation Form- Revised Package, produced by University of Queensland. But that is for keeping track of, and assessing, occupational therapy students on placements. Is there anything more general?

Learning to Reflect in the Age of AI

 

This semester I am aiming to take a tentative step into AI for teaching. This will be in three workshops planned at ANU, for the computer project student's capstone e-portfolio for the ANU Techlauncher program. The students have to prepare a portfolio in the form of an application for a real job. The question was: do we try to ban students from using generative AI to help them with this, or do we show them how to use it effectively and ethically? I will attempt to do the latter. 

The ANU now provides Microsoft Copilot, as part of the Office suite. This provides the opportunity to take studnts through exercises to use it, to help with their writing. I have not used Copilot, but have explored the technology it is based on since 2022. The idea is to get the students in workshop groups to ask a career related question of Copilot, then critique & improve the answer.

A couple of weeks ago I attended a two-day Symposium at USyd on using AI this way, with team-based learning. One tip given at the symposium to stop students simply relying on the answers given by the AI. The idea is to prompt students with a very localized question, which the AI model can only answer with generalities: 

Last week I attended an ANU AI Assessment Question Drop In Session. The impression I got was that the ANU would not be averse to using AI this way. One of the other people who dropped in for advice was already proposing to run some team-based AI sessions along these lines.

Call for ANU Techlauncher Projects

 

Dr Charles Gretton

Dr Charles Gretton has invited project proposals for ANU Techlauncher, Semester 1 2023 (I help student with their reflective portfolios):

"We invite members of the community to participate in the Australian National University TechLauncher Program, as a project proposer/client, mentor, tutor and/or guest speaker. 

ANU TechLauncher is the initiative than enables mature students to work in teams with business, government, and academic experts to address real-world problems, or with experienced mentors to create start-up enterprises as part of their degree studies. It builds on over two decades of real-world group project work at ANU.

How simple is it to get involved? 

1. (Re-)activate your account (https://redmine.cecs.anu.edu.au/redmine/), 
2.  Pitch the cohort a project brief, or otherwise let them know how you are interested in engaging with them, and then
3.  A program facilitator from the Australian National University will be in touch in due course to discuss the program, this model of engagement, and your project in more detail. 

Or.. just email us, or PM on the socials!

The deadline for project proposals is February 10th 2023. If we are oversubscribed, we shall allocate accepted places on a first-come-first-served basis. In case you have unsuccessfully pitched a project to students in the past, we very strongly encourage you to give it another go!

Thank you for your continued interest in the program. We are all looking forward to another ambitious and productive cohort next semester. You are strongly encouraged to forward this call on to others who may be interested in ANU TechLauncher, add this call to your circulars, socialise with your portfolio businesses and innovation ecosystem partners.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email myself and/or Priscilla Kan John."

Using a Job Application as the Capstone Exercise for Work Integrated Learning

On the Yogyakarta Train,
after TALE 2019 

On a visit to Singapore for EduTech Asia 2022, I will stopping off at a university to talk about using a job application as the capstone for work integrated learning. I would be happy to talk at other institutions, while in Singapore, or elsewhere. This is an update to a paper I gave at the 2019 IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Education (TALE). That was a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic, and I had no idea that my idea of designing a blended learning module which could be quickly converted for full online delivery in an emergency would be needed so soon. I will discuss how it went and what universities should do next post-pandemic.

Original paper:

Worthington, T. (2019, December). Blend and Flip for Teaching Communication Skills to Final Year International Computer Science Students. In 2019 IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Education (TALE) (pp. 1-5). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/TALE48000.2019.9225921

Employability and Teaching

Employability has always been an important part of university education. The idea that students enrolled to explore the miseries of the universe and to think deep thoughts is a myth. Universities were established to provide trained professionals for industry and government. Those teaching the students therefore need to be trained in how to teach and test real-world skills. 

One way to make students more employable is to have them undertake internships and group projects. In ANU Techlauncher, computing students with group projects for a real clients. Their last assessment task is to write a job application. 

Providing the resources for Work Integrated Learning (WIL), is a challenge. The classes I help have 200 to 300 students. This could scale to any size, using group work tools from the IT industry. The limiting factor is the availability of suitable tutors.

WIL provides the opportunity to build partnerships with industry. The best partnerships are driven by student involvement which brings staff together. Innovation centers, such as Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN) are also a useful. Just having some sort of committee doesn't really help. Adjunct and honorary staff with industry backgrounds also helps.

Hackerthons can help as a quick lightweight supplement to WIL. Student involvement in innovation centers is also useful. An example of a good story is an ANU student start-up on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. 

However, it takes training, as well as real world experience, for teaching staff to provide WIL. Australian universities tend to showcase teaching, but neglect basic teacher training for staff. School and TAFE teachers are required to have formal AQF qualifications, whereas university teachers are not. Unfortunately the priority at universities is research. One way to get researchers to take teacher training more seriously would be to emphasize how this will reduce work for them, so they can spend more time on research. This training can be done without making staff sit in classroom, but by Dogfooding: give the staff the learning experience we want them to provide their students.

AQF aligned micro-credentials provide the opportunity to rethink how teacher training is provided at universities. These could act as a minimum qualification which tutors are expected to have to teach. This would replace classroom based training courses with documenting experience, and peer support. Tutors could be offered free training, but then get credit for a qualification, by paying the usual course fees. Microcredentials could be nested into certificate/graduate certificates, diploma, degrees/masters of education. Staff could have the option of completing certifications for professional bodies as a byproduct.

Students training for the professions could be offered the same teaching courses as university staff, as teaching/supervision is part of being a professional. As an example, the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA), is used for accrediting computing degrees in Australia. SFIA includes skills definitions for learning management, learning design, learning delivery, competency assessment, certification scheme operation, teaching, and subject formation.

Australian universites should maintain membership of national and international education bodies (such as ASCILITE, ACEN, and EDUCAUSE), and host events under their auspices. This will help guide staff, and lift the level of knowledge of education. This will help with emerging fields, such as co-design with students,  which require specialist skills currently not part of teacher training.

A modest proposal: I suggest an "Indo-Pacific Education Innovation Institute" to the new federal government, with $100M funding over ten years. This would train students from the region, alongside Australians, in advanced digital teaching techniques. 

Hamburger University?

Athabasca University as announced McDonald’s employees will be able to get a  degree while they work. Many jokes are possible: "Hamburger University", "Do you want fries with that degree?", but this is a worthwhile initiative. The students will undertake McDonald’s Canada Management Development program, and get credit towards a business related degree.

Students are already encouraged to undertake work integrated learning. However, it is extremely resource intensive for universities to vet individual employers, and supervise the students on placements. It is difficult to find employers willing to go to the trouble to be part of the program. It is also difficult for students to make the connection between what they are studying and their work. A program which the employer has which is designed for learning make things much easier.

This is not the first Canadian institution to have an agreement with MacDonald's, Ontario colleges already has a deal.

And there is no risk that if I ask for a replacement MEd certificate, it will not say "Hamburger University". ;-)

ANU Has Computing Students Available as Interns

Dr Penny Kyburz, ANU Computing Internship Convenor, asked me to let organisations know that they can now apply to host interns for  2022.  As the internship is part of the student’s academic course, no payment is required.

Round 1

• Host applications open – 13 August 2021
• Host project proposals due - 10 September 2021
• Host organisations assess/interview and advise preferred candidate - 4-22 October 2021
• Placements and agreements finalised

Round 2

• Host applications open – 13 September 2021
• Host project proposals due - 15 October 2021
• Host organisations assess/interview and advise preferred candidate - 8 - 26 November 2021
• Placements and agreements finalised

Placements begin – week beginning 21 February 2022

Australian Government Acknowledges ANU TechLauncher Developing Professionals

 The Australian Public Service Commission has acknowledged the role of the Australian National University's TechLauncher program in "developing the next generation of tech professionals". This is a form of Work Integrated Learning where a team of students undertake a real project for a real client. But is not as easy as it sounds (I help out teaching the students soft skills).

The APSC also have a case study of GovHack on the same page. Hackerthons successfully transitioned to the online environment last year. I helped with some for ANU, ACS, CSIRO, and DoD. There is scope for hackerthons, in both technical and non-technical disciplines, to be used more. Hackerthons could be used as part of the curriculum to give students a short sharp experience of teamwork for course credit, as well as for their usual role of  learning as well as outreach (as with the ANU Singapore Health Hack 2019)?

Reference

Delivering for Tomorrow: APS Workforce Strategy 2025, Australian Public Service Commission, March 2021. URL https://www.apsc.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-03/APS_Workforce_strategy.pdf

Learning to Reflect Module Version 4.0 the 2021 Blended Edition

"Learning to Reflect" is a module for the ANU TechLauncher program, where students reflect on what they have learned, by writing an application for a real job, as their last assessed task before graduating. This was developed in late 2018 and first run in semester 1, from February 2019. This was designed for blended delivery, with the option of easy conversion to full online delivery. That option was needed for Semesters 1 and 2 in 2020 due to COVID-19. The 2021 version is intended to be run online, with a blended delivery option ready for a return to the classroom and is available under a CC-BY licence.

Two small workshop exercises have been added for a 2% mark each, in place of the quizzes and forums used previously. The first assignment has been dropped, to make the assessment less complex. An optional student logbook has been added, to aid student reflection and deter plagiarism. 

A paper on the design and blended delivery of the module is available:

• Worthington, T. (2019, December). Blend and Flip for Teaching Communication Skills to Final Year International Computer Science Students. In 2019 IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Education (TALE) (pp. 1-5). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/TALE48000.2019.9225921

Tuning Zoom Videoconferencing for a Slow computer and Low Speed Broadband

Greetings from the 2020 UQ Work Integrated Learning Symposium, currently on Zoom from Queensland University. This is free and on for four hours, so there may be time for you to join. The students are running the event, which shows commendable dogfooding by UQ.

To improve the performance of Zoom on my slow laptop, and low speed wireless broadband connection, I am trying a router with UDP shaping. 

Previously I noticed that with Zoom in full screen mode the sounds would break up and image freeze. If I reduced the window size it worked better, but this was fiddly. Also when a presenter shares their screen, Zoom tends to force the display back to full screen, after which I have to shrink it again.

An approach I tried in the past was to slow my Internet connection, which Zoom responded to by using lower resolution video, making everything more stable. However, this also slowed down all my other network use. There are software utilities which will slow just one application, but I found these did not work with Zoom.

The Internet uses two sorts of data transmission: TCP and UDP. Most applications, such as email and web browsing use TCP, as this provides a reliable connection. Video conferencing programs typically use UDP for the audio and video, as this has less overheads. The utilities I tried to slow an Internet connection only act on TCP, not UDP, so did not slow Zoom.

Not being able to find a software solution I turned to hardware. Many routers allow for slowing, or "shaping" of the speed of the connection. A few allow this to be targeted at TCP or UDP specifically. I tried a TP-Link TL-MR3020 V3 router (around $50 AU), and switched on the UDP shaping. So far it is working well.

Currently I have the data rates for UDP set to: 800 kbps transmitting and 512 kbps receiving. I want to provide a good quality standard definition image of myself when speaking, but a lower quality for the video I receive, so have sent the sending rate higher than receiving.

Zoom is currently providing an image of the speaker at 320 x 180 pixels, 12 frames per second and screen-sharing at 1440 x 900 pixels, 1 frame per second. The screen share looks very clear and readable, with a clear thumbnail of the speaker next to it. If a video is played in the screen sharing it looks jerky, but fortunately most presenters don't play videos.

A bigger test will come this evening, when I am speaking on "The Virtual University" (6pm, all welcome).

ps: One small glitch: after a short break when my computer went to standby mode the router was no longer connected: I had to reboot it.

pps: The video from some speakers was not appearing in Zoom gallery mode. So I increased the down speed from 512 kbps to 1024 kbps. The increased speed also allowed for screen sharing at 1920 x 1080 pixels at 8 frames per second, which is enough to follow a mouse around the screen and simple animation. In speaker's view the video is now at 640 x 360 pixels 26 frames per second. However, this is using too much of the limited CPU in my computer, so I will try setting up and down speeds to 800 kbps.

ppps: Had problems with the  TP-Link TL-MR3020 router, so changed it for the desktop version, a TL-MR3420, which is working well.

Study and work to get a job quicker

Study to work, ABC Radio,
presented by Richard Aedy

Study to work: 2.6 years to get a job after uni (ABC Radio, 21 November 2019 5:30PM),  looked at how long it took graduates to get jobs. The program illustrated the the point that those studying vocationally related programs, with work integrated learning, got jobs quicker. The most satisfied graduate interviewed, had studied at TAFE, not a university. This graduate had a smooth transition from study to work, being employed where they had been previously getting work experience. The question for universities, and government policy makers, is how to encourage students to undertake vocational programs for in-demand jobs, and what happens to non-vocational programs?

The students I teach are likely to get jobs quickly, as computer professionals are in high demand, especially those who have experience working in teams for a real client. Just to polish their skills, the student's last task before they graduate is to write a job application, where they have to explain how what they learned is useful.

But what do we do for the students enrolled in programs which do not align to a specific career? What about degrees where the careers are in decline, due to technological change? How do we convince students to take up TAFE programs which have low academic prestige, but lead to high paying, in demand employment?

One way to address these issues would be at school. If a student is studying at TAFE while at school, they will be more likely to take up TAFE after finishing school. If students at school are given some more useful career advice, they are less likely to make poor post-secondary career choices.

Work Integrated Models of Learning

The Foundation for Young Australians’ (FYA) New Work Order report points out that despite increased post-secondary qualifications, only half of 25 year olds have full time work. To accelerate the transition from education to full-time work the report recommends: enterprise skills courses, relevant paid employment for students in an area with a future, and an optimistic mindset. The report points the very real mental health issues with students expectation of employment not being met.

The VET sector leads the way with courses teaching useful skills, but universities are catching up. I have designed a university course on how to learn. The hard part has been not what to teach, but how to get the students to put the time into learning this, and to make it it into a suitable topic for serious university study. Sixty students will be in the pilot this semester.

Finding relevant paid work is extremely difficult for students. Traditionally apprentices received less pay than other workers, and in some industries the apprentices paid the employer for their position. As it is, it is difficult to find enough positions even for unpaid interns in in-demand industries such as computer software. Employers are reluctant to go to the trouble and expense of training a part-time, temporary employee with no experience.

Instilling an optimistic mindset in a student is difficult, if they know they have little chance of ever having a full time, secure career. Regrettably some universities, and universities academics, give students the false idea that a general degree will set the student up for any career. While many professions are being "disrupted", with the skills needed changing, what is certain is that if you graduate with a degree not aligned vocationally you are going to find it difficult to get a good job, or any job.

One way around the disruption in full time employment has been to teach students start-up entrepreneurial techniques. The student learns there is an alternative to a full time job for a large organization: they can instead start their own business. The students are told that their chance of success in this is very small, but even if they never set up a successful business they learn valuable business skills.

However, if a student doesn't have any vocationally relevant skills, then entrepreneurial studies are not going to help much. A few successful entrepreneurs did not finish university, and are held out as role models, but their global businesses are staffed by professionally qualified accountants, lawyers, marketers, engineers, and computer scientists.

Blended Learning for the Indo-Pacific in Sydney 4 February

I will be speaking on "Blended Learning for the Indo-Pacific", at the ACEN WIL Snapshots Second Chance Conference in Sydney, 4 February. This event is a chance to hear presentations on Work Integrated Learning (WIL) from recent conferences. It is free for those at member institutions.

Topics and speakers:

1. Reimagining WIL in the Innovative Research Universities, Amani Bell
2. A holistic approach to evaluating an institution-wide WIL program, Kate Lloyd, Anna Rowe, Cherie Nay, Lucy Corrigan
3. WIL to scale, Mita Das, Phil Laufenberg
4. Impacting the curriculum: An institution wide approach to embedding career development learning, Bonnie Dean, Tracey Glover-Chambers, Venkata Yanamandran, Michelle Eady, Tracey Moroney, Nuala O’Donnell
5. EfS@Mq Education: Fostering creative
   approaches to sustainability cross-curriculum
   priority in teacher education, Bronwen Wade-Leeuwen, Wendy Goldstein, Kathleen McLachlan, Thelma Raman
6. A NSW regional school and university partnership: reconceptualising reciprocity in initial teacher education professional experience, Deb Clarke, Matthew Winslade
7. Development of a WIL rubric to facilitate identification and mapping of WIL activities in science courses, Christopher Jones, Thomas Millar, Jo-Anne Chuck
8. Are science academics on the same page as
   society for a new future of work?, Jo-Anne Chuck, Felicity Blackstock, Thomas Millar, Christopher Jones
9. Exploring the role of WIL in developing professional networking capabilities for career development, Denise Jackson, Ruth Bridgestock, Kate Lloyd
10. Internships: A case for a pre-internship preparation programme (PIPP) for accounting students, Mark Hughes, Greg Boland, Iwona
    Miliszewska
11. Debriefing the shapeshifter: How practitioners conceptualise debriefing for Work-Integrated Learning, Theresa Winchester-Seeto, Anna Rowe
12. Bringing theory to life: Using WIL to motivate Commitment and master complexity, Lisa Anderson, John Burke
13. Reflection for learning as a quality framework for WIL, Marina Harvey , Kate Lloyd, Kath McLachlan, Anne-Louise Semple, Greg Walkerden
14. Ethnography in work integrated learning, research, Bonnie Dean
15. Blended Learning for the Indo-Pacific, Tom Worthington

Reframing Assessment

I have registered for the University of Canberra's free workshop Monday on "Work Integrated Learning - a disciplined approach". The pre-reading is Ruge and McCormack (2017) on "reframing" assessment for employability. This is something I am comfortable with, as I teach computing and engineering students, where there are clear professional roles with defined skills.

As a computer professional I have been involved with setting national and international skills standards and the accreditation of university programs. I have then designed university courses to meet these standards.  But this would be a challenge for those from disciplines which are not so vocationally orientated. I suspect the greatest challenge for those facilitating the workshop will be the reluctance of some academics to see themselves as vocational educators, or worse "trainers". ;-)

Ruge and McCormack (2017) report on a five year Australian study of students in Building and Construction Management at the University of Canberra. This is clearly an industry related discipline and "Constructive alignment" should be easy for the construction industry. ;-) 

The researcher's suggestions are not  surprising, including linking curriculum to industry requirements and scaffolded assessment. The one suggestion I have difficulty with is the use of reflection to have student think about their own learning. Having been through several reflective writing exercises myself as a student and a HEA Fellows applicant, I find the process perplexing.

My computer and engineering students find it equally perplexing to be told to reflect on their learning. What worked well this semester was to re-frame the capstone reflective writing exercise for ANU Techlauncher students, as a job application, based on what they had learned in the course. They were still reflecting on what they learned, but in a way relevant to their short term goal: get a job.

Ruge and McCormack (2017) comment that "Unit-specific assessment items are therefore key building blocks and teaching and learning opportunities for students’ generic and early professional skills development for employability ...". However, this appears to be more for the administrative convenience of the university, than the quality of the student learning. Universities like to have a small set of standardized units which can be assembled into a large number of program offerings. However, it can be difficult to match the learning outcomes of these general purpose units to the requirements of a specific professional skills requirement. An alternative is to build units specific to the discipline, to have a project based program without units, or units plus a project capstone.

Ruge and McCormack (2017) discuss educational design principles for learning through authentic assessment. In theory this is not that difficult: simply provide assessment tasks which simulate what the graduate will have to do in the workplace. As an example, I teach students how to estimate the carbon em missions due to use of ICT in an organization, so I get the students to do that and assess the results. The terms I use to describe this assessment item comes from the learning objective for the course, which in turn comes from the skills definition of the gallivant international professional standard.

However, designing and delivering authentic assessment is a complex and time consuming process. Either the students are understanding the task in a real workplace, or a simulation of one. Having students in workplaces requires specialized supervision skills.

Students will not necessarily be interested in, or understand the alignment of assessment with

the profession's requirements. This understanding may only come years later.

Promises of "personalized" formative feedback can create unrealistic expectations in students and an unrealistic workload for staff. As with lectures, which students say they want, but do not attend, detailed feedback is something expected but not necessarily used. One a course as a student of assessment I read research results which indicated students did not read detailed feedback. I thought this nonsense: I spent a lot of time composing feedback and surely the students read it. My assignment on feedback reflected that view. The assignment came back from the assessor and I looked at the mark on the front (which was okay), then flicked it aside. At that point I stopped and realized I was a student exhibiting the behavior I said students did not have: I had not read the feedback. Since then I have adopted the practice of of very brief feedback next to the mark.

References

Ruge, G., & McCormack, C. (2017). Building and construction students’ skills development for employability–reframing assessment for learning in discipline-specific contexts. Architectural Engineering and Design Management, 1-19.