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The introduction of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as a vehicle for education delivery prese... more The introduction of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as a vehicle for education delivery presents opportunities and challenges. In the context of the Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre (Wicking Centre), the driver to develop a MOOC was the promise of addressing the international deficit in evidence-based dementia education, as well as the lack of research into international perspectives on dementia. The Wicking Centre's activity integrates research and education, framed by the concept of 'quality of life across the trajectory of dementia.' With dementia emerging as the public health issue of the 21 st century, lack of dementia education at multiple levels, professional and non-professional, is of increasing concern. The disruptive character of MOOCs, with associated risks and uncertainties, warranted the application of a research-oriented project management approach to development. This included investing resources in gathering and analysing data to underp...
A key issue to address in the design and implementation of any assessment system is ensuring its ... more A key issue to address in the design and implementation of any assessment system is ensuring its reliabil-ity and validity. University assessment policies often require staff to prepare parallel examinations for students who are unable to sit the initial examination. There is little published literature to give confidence to staff or students that these examinations are indeed reliable or equivalent. This study was conducted to determine the validity, reliability and equivalence of two parallel examinations that have been developed under highly defined quality assurance (QA) processes in a university setting. Collated assessment results for all the 76 participants who sat the parallel examinations were subjected to statistical and correlational analysis to test for significant differences between mean scores and their associated standard deviations. Item analysis was conducted for each assessment by computing the difficulty index (DIF), discrimination index (DI) and Kuder-Richardson...
Recognising teaching excellence has been identified as a ‘progressive force’ in supporting academ... more Recognising teaching excellence has been identified as a ‘progressive force’ in supporting academic professionalism (Skelton, 2007). However despite twenty years of scholarship embedded within the higher education learning and teaching domain, investigations into teaching excellence and the programs that promote it are few. Mentoring in higher education has been commonly regarded as an important strategy through which to support staff in developing their teaching practice and fostering their career aspirations. Mentoring has been linked to career advancement, increased self-confidence, and personal satisfaction and growth, with these benefits being described for both mentors and mentees (Darwin & Palmer, 2009). However research related to the use of peer learning and mentoring for staff in higher education is limited (Zellers, Howard, & Barcic, 2010), and relates largely to faculty based programs or discipline-specific mentoring for staff that are new to the higher education sector....
Academic Standards in Higher Education are critical to the accreditation of courses and instituti... more Academic Standards in Higher Education are critical to the accreditation of courses and institutions nationally. An infrastructure gap hinders coherent and consistent embedding of Standards into curriculum such that quality enhancement (QE) activities are not always consistently prompted and reported. Therefore good practice in QE activities are not always available to the sector. Scarcity of resources, time and funding reinforces the need to share expertise. Our strategic CoP 360 which grew from peer learning circle (PLC) roots and 18 months of dedication from its team members is committed to unearthing these pockets of good practice and facilitating the sharing of QE expertise across the sector. This presentation will outline the activities undertaken by the CoP in 2014 in preparation for a developing our work into a national project. Activities have included undertaking a literature review, developing a national research collaboration, and applying for an Office for Learning and ...
The Higher Education Standards (HES) Framework prescribes the minimum requirements for provision ... more The Higher Education Standards (HES) Framework prescribes the minimum requirements for provision of higher education in Australia. Standard 5.3 in particular functions as a driver for continuous evaluation informing ongoing curriculum transformation. This paper presents a conceptual approach and framework for embedding evaluation into course curricula. The Curriculum Evaluation and Research (CER) framework establishes a scholarly regime for routine collection of natural, grade and demographic data that is available for research purposes and quality assuring curricula against the threshold standards in the HES Framework. Additionally, the paper outlines a number of practical resources for use by teaching teams to address sector, institutional and academic expectations of renewal and transformation of curricula through evidencebased curriculum design and teaching practice. This paper reports the initial phases of developing and implementing the CER framework and enabling resources. Th...
The introduction of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as a vehicle for education delivery prese... more The introduction of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as a vehicle for education delivery presents opportunities and challenges. In the context of the Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre (Wicking Centre), the driver to develop a MOOC was the promise of addressing the international deficit in evidence-based dementia education, as well as the lack of research into international perspectives on dementia. The Wicking Centre's activity integrates research and education, framed by the concept of 'quality of life across the trajectory of dementia.' With dementia emerging as the public health issue of the 21 st century, lack of dementia education at multiple levels, professional and non-professional, is of increasing concern. The disruptive character of MOOCs, with associated risks and uncertainties, warranted the application of a research-oriented project management approach to development. This included investing resources in gathering and analysing data to underp...
A key issue to address in the design and implementation of any assessment system is ensuring its ... more A key issue to address in the design and implementation of any assessment system is ensuring its reliabil-ity and validity. University assessment policies often require staff to prepare parallel examinations for students who are unable to sit the initial examination. There is little published literature to give confidence to staff or students that these examinations are indeed reliable or equivalent. This study was conducted to determine the validity, reliability and equivalence of two parallel examinations that have been developed under highly defined quality assurance (QA) processes in a university setting. Collated assessment results for all the 76 participants who sat the parallel examinations were subjected to statistical and correlational analysis to test for significant differences between mean scores and their associated standard deviations. Item analysis was conducted for each assessment by computing the difficulty index (DIF), discrimination index (DI) and Kuder-Richardson...
Recognising teaching excellence has been identified as a ‘progressive force’ in supporting academ... more Recognising teaching excellence has been identified as a ‘progressive force’ in supporting academic professionalism (Skelton, 2007). However despite twenty years of scholarship embedded within the higher education learning and teaching domain, investigations into teaching excellence and the programs that promote it are few. Mentoring in higher education has been commonly regarded as an important strategy through which to support staff in developing their teaching practice and fostering their career aspirations. Mentoring has been linked to career advancement, increased self-confidence, and personal satisfaction and growth, with these benefits being described for both mentors and mentees (Darwin & Palmer, 2009). However research related to the use of peer learning and mentoring for staff in higher education is limited (Zellers, Howard, & Barcic, 2010), and relates largely to faculty based programs or discipline-specific mentoring for staff that are new to the higher education sector....
Academic Standards in Higher Education are critical to the accreditation of courses and instituti... more Academic Standards in Higher Education are critical to the accreditation of courses and institutions nationally. An infrastructure gap hinders coherent and consistent embedding of Standards into curriculum such that quality enhancement (QE) activities are not always consistently prompted and reported. Therefore good practice in QE activities are not always available to the sector. Scarcity of resources, time and funding reinforces the need to share expertise. Our strategic CoP 360 which grew from peer learning circle (PLC) roots and 18 months of dedication from its team members is committed to unearthing these pockets of good practice and facilitating the sharing of QE expertise across the sector. This presentation will outline the activities undertaken by the CoP in 2014 in preparation for a developing our work into a national project. Activities have included undertaking a literature review, developing a national research collaboration, and applying for an Office for Learning and ...
The Higher Education Standards (HES) Framework prescribes the minimum requirements for provision ... more The Higher Education Standards (HES) Framework prescribes the minimum requirements for provision of higher education in Australia. Standard 5.3 in particular functions as a driver for continuous evaluation informing ongoing curriculum transformation. This paper presents a conceptual approach and framework for embedding evaluation into course curricula. The Curriculum Evaluation and Research (CER) framework establishes a scholarly regime for routine collection of natural, grade and demographic data that is available for research purposes and quality assuring curricula against the threshold standards in the HES Framework. Additionally, the paper outlines a number of practical resources for use by teaching teams to address sector, institutional and academic expectations of renewal and transformation of curricula through evidencebased curriculum design and teaching practice. This paper reports the initial phases of developing and implementing the CER framework and enabling resources. Th...