Professor Alec Cameron - University of Western Australia - Education Futures: developing a new vision for learning and teaching

Education Futures and the Role of the LMS Black Swan Conference 11th Feb 2015

PROFESSOR ALEC CAMERON, DEPUTY VICE-CHANCELLOR EDUCATION, THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Education Futures Developing a new vision for learning and teaching

PROFESSOR ALEC CAMERON. DEPUTY VICE-CHANCELLOR (EDUCATION) FUTURE OF LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT, 17 FEB, 2015

The University of Western Australia


!  University enrols more than 25,000 students, in eight faculties

!  78.8% of the State's school-leavers with an ATAR of 95+ and 71.4% of those with an ATAR of 90+

!  91st on the Academic Ranking of World Universities

!  Celebrated UWA Centenary in 2013


Overview

!  Context •  External forces: technology;

competition; demography •  Internal: students; staff; financial

!  How do we currently teach and why?

!  Competitive advantages of campus-based universities

!  How should we teach?

!  Achieving change


The context of higher education (in Australia)

!  Large scale institutions, student populations and enrolments; •  “mass” teaching model

!  Uniformity in curriculum and teaching approach

!  No unmet demand from school leavers seeking university education

!  Declining attendance on campus

!  Emergence of new (global) fully on-line offerings


Is our education “effective”?

!  Can we assume the inputs achieve educational outcomes? !  Should we persist with modes if they are known to be poor at “educating”

If the business of universities is to ‘download’ a package of knowledge to students, we should move fully online now


Why should students attend a campus-based university?

!  ‘Acquire’ a body of knowledge !  Master a subject area !  Develop important “graduate attributes” !  Achieve accreditation and quality assurance !  Receive a qualification recognised globally !  Develop personal and professional networks


How should we refocus on-campus education?

Fewer More

(didactic) lectures self-directed learning alongside tutorials, seminars, labs, and other interactive, engaging activities

lecture recordings fit-for-purpose on-line content

leading academics behind the podium in lecture halls

interactive, experiential, social educational experiences

This will requires reallocating resources to appropriate physical facilities and IT


Elements of “back to the future”

Oxford and Cambridge tutorial model

Modern lecture-based model

Online content and high quality campus experience

model


Achieving change

!  Generic University motto: •  Change is good … but no change is better.

!  UWA Futures Paper: "In order to ensure that we deliver a distinctive, high-quality and highly valued

educational experience to all our students, we will need to use all of our assets - our campus facilities, our course structure, our approach to pedagogy, our excellent staff, our research performance, the abilities of our students, our institutional reputation, our international connections – to best effect “


Achieving change

How to foster a ‘movement’

•  Recognise heterogeneity among the teaching body •  Identify and publicise leading practice •  Explicitly support early adopters and close followers •  Build critical mass •  Measure progress •  Celebrate success •  Deal with poor performance (based on student feedback)


Questions