The University of Western Australia Faculty of Life and Physical Sciences

MEMBERS OF THE FACULTY OF LIFE AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES TEACHING AND LEARNING COMMITTEE

Associate Professor Peter Whipp (Chair) Ms Jenny Gamble (Faculty Manager) Associate Professor Nancy Longnecker (Teaching and Learning Co-ordinator)

Representatives from Schools: Dr Jan Meyer (Anatomy and Human Biology) Professor Alice Vrielink (Biomedical, Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences) Professor Ian McArthur (Physics) Professor Geoff Hammond (Psychology) Professor Robert Grove (Sport Science, Exercise and Health)

Other Representatives: Associate Professor Des Hill (Mathematics and Statistics) Associate Professor Thomas Martin (Faculty Offshore Programs Director) Ms Marjan Heibloem (Representative from FNAS) Ms Merrilee Albatis (Science Library) Mr David Enright (Program Manager/Offshore Programs) Mr Tiago Tomaz (Postgraduate Student Representative) Visitors: Dr Joanne Castelli (Peer Assisted Learning Program Co-ordinator) Observers: Barbara Levit (Disability Officer) Apologies: Dr Jane Hallos (Student Adviser)

The next meeting of the Teaching & Learning Committee will be held in the Faculty Meeting Room 158 on Tuesday 12 April 2011 at 2pm. All members are expected to attend or ensure that a representative from the School will attend on their behalf.

1. MINUTES

Confirmation of the minutes of the meeting of the Teaching and Learning Committee held on Monday 21 February 2011.

2. DECLARATIONS OF POTENTIAL FOR CONFLICT OR PERCEIVED CONFLICT OF

INTEREST The Chair invites members to declare interest in relation to any item on the agenda.

3. ITEMS/BUSINESS IN PROGRESS FOR NOTING SINCE PREVIOUS MEETING Item/Business in Progress Progress Update Status Principles of assessment and amendment of Marks

Policies to be created To be revisited

Part I – Items for Communication to be dealt with en bloc

There are no items for inclusion Part I

Part II – Items for Decision to be dealt with en bloc

There are no items for inclusion Part II

Part III – Items for Discussion and Decision

4. PEER ASSISTED LEARNNG (PAL) PROGRAM PAL has been administered by the Faculty of Life and Physical Sciences over the planned two year trial period of 2009-2010 using funds sourced from the University Learning and Teaching Performance Fund. The long-term objective for the PAL program was that Schools would consider taking over funding and implementation of their own PAL programs based on the pilot scheme. A report on the activities of the PAL Program for Semester 2 2010 is attached (Attachment A). The paper Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) Program Directions: 2011 and Beyond (Attachment B) provides options and recommendations for the implementation of the PAL program in 2011 and beyond. For discussion

5. NC2012 EMBEDDING SCIENCE COMMUNICATION AND RESEARCH SKILLS

The Faculties of Science Embedding Skills Working Party has been investigating the development of an online resource to support the learning and teaching of science communication and research skills. This resource would ideally be available in an open web environment easily accessible to students and lecturers. Due to the fact that there is currently no single resource that covers all dimensions of the Communication and Research Skills Framework, the Chair has proposed development of an internal resource. The proposed development and draft content outline for this resource are attached (Attachment C & D).

6. LARGE CLASS SIZES

The chair has been approached by first year co-ordinators in Psychology and Human Biology who were concerned over the growing number of enrolments in units at level one (Attachment E). They were concerned on what impact this would have on the student experience. The unit PSYC1101 had 1,045 students enrolled in 2011 and ANHB1101 had only marginally smaller numbers. The Faculty had expected 300 extra students in semester 1, 2011. For discussion

7. TEACHING AWARDS REVISTED

The chair would like to discuss teaching awards in relation to:

Group versus Individual; Developing objective measures and; Identifying excellence.

8. PSB: THE INTRODUCTION OF THE FUTURE FRAMEWORK

David Enright, Program Manager PSB will provide an overview of the introduction of the Future Framework at PSB.

9. INTEGRATION OF ACADEMIC PROCEDURES AND STUDENTS RIGHTS INTO AN ONLINE MODULE

Following on from the review of the PSB Academy in Singapore, Dr Thomas Martin, Faculty Offshore Program Director would like to discuss the integration of academic assessment procedures and student rights into an online module at PSB (Attachment F). For discussion

10. PROVIDING STUDENT FEEDBACK

The Chair will provide an update on the state of play, student experience, determining a perceived need for change.

11. UWA ASSESSMENT AND FEEDBACK PROJECT

UWA is especially keen to extend and promote effective assessment and feedback practices at UWA, in the context of the New Courses development (Attachment G). To focus on this area, a university-wide Assessment and Feedback Project will take place during 2011. This project is intended to assist staff and to provide resources and support to faculties and schools. It is envisaged that all faculties will become involved in this project in the first half of 2011. To this end FLPS has nominated Associate Professor Peter Whipp and FNAS has nominated Dr Brenton Knott and Ms Marjan Heibloem. For discussion

12. SCHOOL REPORTS

13. TEACHING AND LEARNING COORDINATOR REPORT

14. STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE REPORT

15. OTHER ITEMS OF BUSINESS

D1  5. NC2012 EMBEDDING SCIENCE COMMUNICATION AND RESEARCH SKILLS  Science Communication and Research Skills Online Resource Development The Faculties of Science Embedding Skills Working Party has been investigating the development of an online resource to support the learning and teaching of science communication and research skills. This resource would ideally be available in an open web environment easily accessible to students and lecturers. An extensive search of the resources currently available at UWA and other Australian Universities has revealed there is no single resource that covers all dimensions of the Communication and Research Skills Framework. The proposal for development of our own resource is detailed: Proposed development of resources The new IRIS package currently being developed by the library and STUDY Smarter addresses the communication skills framework, and some of the research skills at an introductory level in a package that can be completed by students in approximately two hours. Modules specific to science could be created utilising the platform already developed for IRIS. This option has the advantage of using a professional to create a modern looking, user friendly and interactive online resource, which would be available on the open web. With the library estimating expenditure of $60 000 on an external consultant as well as equivalent of a full time internal person for 12 weeks for the IRIS project. Preliminary talks with this consultant have given a ballpark figure of $50 000 (plus internal staff time) for a resource that would include the elements in Attachment C - table 1 at an intermediate level. The consultant would need 4 months from receiving the written content (in template form) to producing a final product. The external consultant has also developed the online resources The Research Journey http://www.postgraduate.uwa.edu.au/students/journey for the Graduate Research School and Answering Clinical Questions for the Faculty of Medicine Dentistry and Health Sciences http://www.meddent.uwa.edu.au/teaching/acq.  Science Communication and Research Skills Resources for Teaching Staff In order to support staff in the teaching of communication and research skills within units, several resources are being developed. These include generic marking keys or rubrics for assessments. The Faculties of Science Embedding Skills Working Party are also working with Associate Professor Nancy Longnecker, Science Communication Program Coordinator, and Graduate Education Officers to produce several adaptable teaching modules that will cover between them most of the dimensions of the science communication and research skills framework.            

    E1 

Faculty of Life and Physical Sciences 

Large class sizes – 2011 and beyond 

21/01/2011 

 

Correspondence: December 2010 Dear Professor Whipp, Please let me introduce myself and Julie. We are first year co-ordinators in Psychology and Human Biology respectively. Recently Tony O’Donnell visited Psychology and told us that the faculty is expecting 300 extra students in 2011, Semester 1. Since PSYC1101 had 1045 students enrolled at the beginning of semester 1 this year (Human Biology had only marginally smaller numbers) and we usually get most of any increase in student numbers enrolling in our units, Julie and I would value the opportunity to talk with you about how this will impact on the student experience, and solutions to the problem of finding sufficiently large teaching spaces for our lectures and managing the lab’s. We have some ideas, and would appreciate the opportunity of discussing these with you. Many thanks for taking the time to respond. Yours sincerely, Romola

Romola S. Bucks, MSc., PhD. School of Psychology M304, The University of Western Australia 35 Stirling Highway Crawley 6009, Western Australia  

And Julie Hill

 

Discussion points 

1200 students in a unit 

o No lecture venue to accommodate  

o 48 tutorials: n=25 students 

Anxiety for the coordinators 

o The issue is fixed by people in the trenches 

o Staff feel isolated 

o Had to turn first year (1st day) students away at the door 

    E2 

Students not understanding 

o Confused 

o Differentiated experiences and opportunities 

o Negative first year experience 

o Impacted student outcomes 

No UWA policy – other than repeat lectures and trialling ‘live‐feed’., and Lectopia 

 

Repeat or ‘overflow’ lectures: 

Repeat no longer running after week 1. 

Cannot get a suitable venue that allows a repeat in the immediate timeslot that follows 

Additional work for lecturers – impacts on research productivity 

Difficult to communicate to students, before the first lecture, that they are in a repeat 

lecture. FLPS experimenting with text‐messaging. 

Students ignore the request to come at a later time and turn‐up at the earlier time – 

meaning students are turned‐away!  

 

Live‐feed: 

Several cameras: 

o 1 camera follows the lecturer 

o 1 camera focuses on demonstrations 

Screens: 

o Students have a split screen – seeing 2 different images  

o Lecturer sees two screens 

1 screen shows the students in the slave theatre (audience) 

1 screen shows what is on the screen in the slave theatre 

Communication: 

o A microphone for students in the slave theatre to ask questions 

Live‐feed has relatively effective and successful. Physics (2010) continued through‐out the 

semester – declaring maintenance of a student need and relative success. 

Observations from Physics (notes taken from presentation by Prof Ian McArthur – UWA 

Leadership Day Feb 2011):  

    E3 

o lecturers must be actors and stage managers simultaneously 

o preparation and deliberate student engagement are essential 

o lecturers must be trained to use the system – considerable work 

o ‘concert style’ view/benefit for master theatre 

Approximate cost: $90K set‐up with relatively little on‐going costs. However, more 

information is needed on the requirement and cost of production and support crew. 

Questions unresolved:  

o Does the slave theatre equate to a poorer student experience? 

o If there is little (or no) communication between lectures and students in large 

lectures – Why not just watch a video? 

 

Lectopia and/or WebCT: 

OCLR – students given an option (pre‐unit) to declare that they will not attend lectures – but 

access Lectopia – approximately 10‐15% initially indicate this option 

Indifferent staff and student perceptions 

o Limited learning resources 

Indirect cost to students to access the web 

 

Manage the large student numbers: (notes taken from presentation by Prof David Morrison – UWA 

Leadership Day Feb 2011)  

Establish and define acceptable staff work‐load and service provision balance: Students 

expect to be taught and have ever‐increasing support (electronic technology/access and 

communication). UWA/Schools expect staff to ‘engage’ with teaching and totally ‘commit’ to 

research – in a climate of shrinking resource support. 

Through open communication assist students to: 

o  Redefine unit expectations and options 

Make it clear that it is a choice to attend  ‐ allow students to declare non‐

attendance at  enrolment 

Define, assist and provide on‐going support for e‐options 

Utilise ‘super‐tutors’ to support discussion boards and blogs. 

Respond to themes of concern – not individual questions 

    E4 

Encourage students to respond to other e‐posted questions 

o Reasonable service provision 

o Course and career outcomes (for example 1100 enter Psychology – only 20 complete 

masters and become practising psychologists) 

Unit management: 

o Communication: Psychological impression of management can be more powerful 

than the actual behaviours. For example: offering additional assistance to a group – 

may result in very few actually engaging with that help, but, it will have a positive 

psychological impression on all (evidenced in spot questionnaires) 

o Build a professional staff and academic staff as a team 

Professional staff that support academic staff, requiring responsibility, 

accountability, consulting and informing.  

o Consistency of Unit provisions and expectations 

 

Now and the future – ideas: 

Possible strategies to assist accommodating large class sizes  

1. Recording student attendance (Barcode on student ID) . Using e‐recording of students as 

they enter or exit lectures 

a. Potential motivation for students to attend lectures 

b. Providing valuable research data: 

i. Attendance profiling 

ii. Student performance profiling 

iii. Additional categories to further understand data related to the student 

experience 

2. Repeat lectures that are timetabled to follow in the immediate timeslot, in the same venue, 

or very close‐by 

a. Students would potentially need to be time‐tabled for both timeslots 

3. Electronic Units: video capture lectures from a previous year (professional production), 

supplement them with additional resources, and provide them as on‐line and C‐disc. 

a. Provide additional support (hard‐copy manual, blog’s, chat site, discussion forums) 

b. Potentially a model for other off‐site situations (Albany, Singapore) 

4. Off‐site venue: The Perth convention centre 

    E5 

a. UWA provide shuttle services 

5. Crediting with advanced standing‐ effectively reducing class sizes 

a. Use previous learning experiences to provide credit  

b. Use pre‐testing to ascertain crediting levels 

i. Provide pre‐Unit on‐line reading and opportunity for assessment/testing to 

gain credit  

6. Build flexible facilities that accommodate large lecture audiences   

7. Create new unit delivery structures and pedagogy. Lectures must ‘value add’ to the learning 

experience (some comments from notes taken from presentation by Prof Mark Israel – UWA 

Leadership Day Feb 2011)  

a. Discussion groups 

b. Problem solve in small groups 

c. Guest presenters – particularly  role play 

i. a,b,c serve to break social isolation 

d. Link lectures to field trips 

e. Link lectures to co‐curricular university activities  

f. Seek student feedback: 

i. 3 things I liked about the lecture 

ii. 2 things I didn’t like about the lecture 

iii. 1 thing to improve the experience 

g. Use pre‐recorded e‐lectures to front‐load students and use the lecture time for 

more interactive pedagogy that extends the e‐content 

h. First 6 lectures are electronic with additional support (hard‐copy manual, blog’s, 

chat site, discussion forums) 

i. Followed by assessment/testing – crediting levels of achievement for further 

on‐line access, or the need to attend lectures 

i. Differentiated options: lecture attendance or ‐ Formalising the opt‐for non‐

attendance (hard‐copy manual, blog’s, chat site, discussion forums) 

i. Create on‐going formative assessment to monitor progress 

8. Combinations of the above 

9. ? 

   

 

    G1 

11. UWA ASSESSMENT AND FEEDBACK PROJECT  UWA is especially keen to extend and promote effective assessment and feedback practices at UWA, in the context of the New Courses development. UWA performs extremely well in almost every aspect of its educational delivery. The one area of continuing difficulty, however, recorded in surveys of both staff and students, is that of assessment and feedback. Whilst UWA achieves outstanding results in the surveys of student satisfaction compared with the national sector; the most recent data from a number of sources relating to student assessment and feedback at UWA indicates clearly that the area requires consideration. To focus on this area, a university-wide Assessment and Feedback Project will take place during 2011. This project is intended to assist staff and to provide resources and support to faculties and schools.

The aims of the project are two-fold: to enhance the educational value for students of the assessment and feedback processes we employ in the New Courses; and to find ways to achieve greater efficiency in assessment processes to the benefit of both staff and student workloads. The main focal points of the project will be:

To generate a whole-of-course perspective on student learning achievements, To generate greater alignment and cohesion between assessment tasks and desired

student learning outcomes/graduate attributes, To create a more manageable workload for staff and students through more effective

assessment practices, To ensure that, for those courses that are accredited, the ways that assessment links and

supports accreditation is clearly articulated. This project will be led from the office of the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education), conducted by Associate Professor Janice Orrell (a national Higher Education Consultant), with the close involvement of Winthrop Professor Denise Chalmers (Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning), and the support of Zoe Anderson (Research Associate). It will be conducted in close consultation with faculty appointed project staff and faculty collegial networks, to ensure that due regard is accorded to specific disciplinary approaches, and that the outcomes achieved are robust, locally agreed, and of a standard appropriate to the discipline . It is envisaged that all faculties will become involved in this project in the first half of 2011. There will be support available for this involvement. FLPS has nominated Associate Professor Peter Whipp and FNAS has nominated Dr Brenton Knott and Ms Marjan Heibloem.