scholarly journals Embedding Graduate Attributes into the Undergraduate Curriculum: Reflection and Actions

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Smith
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Undergraduate Curriculum ◽  
Extracurricular Activity ◽  
Graduate Attributes ◽  
New Graduate ◽  
Institutional Experience ◽  
Work And Life ◽  
Key Interventions

Gibbs’ (1988) reflective cycle is used as a framework to explore the institutional experience of embedding new graduate attributes (GAs) as part of a major refocus of all the undergraduate courses at Leeds Beckett University. One of the key components of this curricular refocus was the initial conceptualisation and embedding of three new graduate attributes. The University’s three GAs are i)        having a global outlook ii)       being enterprising and iii)      being digitally literate. This paper focuses on the seven main interventions which were used to embed and foster their delivery in the refocused curriculum. The GAs run through each level of every UG course and prepare students for work and life through a variety of embedded intracurricular module-based, credit-bearing activities. This reflective paper concentrates on the intra-module core curricular activity manifested by the GAs embedded in course and module learning outcomes and not students’ extracurricular activity even though this can be regarded as strengthening skills for life and the workplace (Bowden, Hart, King, Trigwell, & Watts, 2000). A combination of personal and colleagues’ reflections, evidence from surveys and analysis of actions are highlighted using Gibbs’ (1988) cycle as a framework to explore the process in a systematic way and assist in the illustration and analysis of some of our key interventions. This reflective account considers our successes (resources and building the digital literacy GA) and some of the surprising benefits (communities of practice) of this initiative. The paper also uses Hounsell’s (2011) and Barrie’s (2006) frameworks to deconstruct the curriculum change experience and offers structured reflection on some of the lessons learnt from the challenges, e.g. tight timescales, staff ownership and constructive alignment (Biggs, 1996). Key future actions are noted; specifically the engagement of staff and students to address application/tailoring to disciplines and their specific course design issues.

Online course design from a communities-of-practice perspective

eLearn ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 2006 (9) ◽  
pp. 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
John D. Smith ◽  
Beverly Trayner
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Online Course ◽  
Online Course Design ◽  
Practice Perspective

scholarly journals CREATING FACULTY BUY-IN: LEADERSHIP CHALLENGES IN IMPLEMENTING CEAB GRADUATE ATTRIBUTES

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Govind Gopakumar ◽  
Deborah Dusart-Gale ◽  
Ali Akgunduz
Keyword(s):  
Course Design ◽  
Program Improvement ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Curricular Innovation ◽  
Engineering Programs ◽  
Leadership Challenges ◽  
Graduate Attributes ◽  
Educational Culture ◽  
Program Innovation ◽  
High Degree

In 2009 the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB) announced its intention requiring all undergraduate engineering programs in Canada to utilize twelve graduate attributes for assessing the capacities of its students. In response, engineering faculties across the country have been experimenting with creating processes that incorporate these graduate attributes as a means to stimulate program improvement to achieve curricular and program innovation. Many of the support resources (like the inter-university collaboration EGAD, for example) have focused largely in three directions – definitional, programmatic and information management challenges faced by different engineering programs.Less attention has been given to identifying and addressing leadership challenges faced by faculty administrators in piloting curricular and programmatic changes such as the CEAB graduate attributes. We argue that these challenges result from fundamental features of university educational culture: faculty members place great value upon autonomy in their workplace, and likewise expect a high degree of intellectual independence in designing courses. The introduction of CEAB attributes, together with the mandated changes they will bring to course design, is perceived by faculty members as an external imposition. Such a perception we suggest introduces some scepticism in the faculty about its efficacy leading to a disengagement from the change process. Thorough attention to these cultural factors impacting on graduate attributes adoption is crucial to the implementation of successful curriculum development.Describing these challenges in detail, this paper will outline some pathways that can circumvent these impediments to curricular innovation.

scholarly journals Modernising a Classic: Updating Leeds Beckett University’s Taxonomy of Assessment Domains to Support Institutional Curricular Change

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Smith ◽  
Rebecca Sellers
Keyword(s):  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Working Group ◽  
Curricular Change ◽  
Periodic Review ◽  
Short Life ◽  
Graduate Attributes ◽  
Curriculum Review ◽  
Intended Learning Outcomes ◽  
Future Work

Leeds Beckett University is embarking on a new cycle of Periodic Review after our wholesale curriculum review in 2012. Reviewing our current academic activity in relation to our curricular practice showed that work still needed to be done in several key areas. For example, improving the writing of levelled intended learning outcomes (ILOs), integrating our graduate attributes (GAs) – Enterprise, Having a Global Outlook and Digital Literacy – more fully into course and module outcomes and ensuring staff understand the nature and scope of the different assessment domains which enhance opportunities for full student learning from our programmes. To address these issues, a short life working group (SLWG) focused on modernising our existing taxonomy of assessment domains (Link 1) which had been well-used by our staff for at least 20 years. This paper focuses on i) consideration of the benefits of the existing taxonomy ii) the broader context and reasons for modifying our existing taxonomy of assessment domains, iii) the approach, process and activity of the SLWG, iv) planned future work streams to build on our work in progress.

scholarly journals INDUSTRY PERCEPTIONS OF GRADUATE ATTRIBUTE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE WORKPLACE

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald S. Petkau
Keyword(s):  
Accreditation Process ◽  
The Other ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Professional Skills ◽  
Graduate Attributes ◽  
New Graduates ◽  
New Graduate ◽  
University Of Manitoba ◽  
Areas Of Concern ◽  
The University

At the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Manitoba research has been undertaken to determine the level of student competency in the graduate attributes as set forth by the CEAB accreditation process. This study takes an alternative view and seeks to understand the current industry requirements for a new graduate employee based on the graduate attributes. It consisted of a questionnaire completed by two groups of engineers working in a major energy corporation in the Province of Manitoba. One group consisted of senior engineers with a minimum of 15 years experience while the other was of new graduates with at minimum 18 months of service. The groups were asked to complete a questionnaire on the level of competency they felt was required for new graduates entering the workplace. This paper describes the process and the analysis of the information. Results were compared with an assessment of a new graduate’s competency levels. The information shows that while a student’s competency levels at graduation may be lower than expected they still generally meet the requirements of the workplace. Information also shows that areas of concern are not in the technical areas but rather in the professional skills.

Designing Online Courses as a Team

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-73
Author(s):  
M'hammed Abdous
Keyword(s):  
Course Design ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Collective Intelligence ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Public Institution ◽  
Online Course ◽  
Degree Programs ◽  
Course Content ◽  
Institutional Experience

Unlike the traditional “lone ranger” method for online course design—a method that hinges on individual faculty efforts, expertise, and knowledge—a team-based approach (TBA) harnesses the collective intelligence of several experts to design effective online learning experiences. Using learning design (LD) as a conceptual framework, this article describes the experience of a public institution in using a team-based approach to produce a large number of online courses for degree programs. After establishing the relevance of a team-based approach, the author discusses the premises that underpin the model, in terms of process, faculty relationship, and quality assurance. Building on these premises, a cyclical backward design process is described which is intended to (1) clarify course-learning outcomes and align course content, (2) determine acceptable evidence of students' learning, and (3) plan the learning experience. The article is concluded with a few insights and lessons learned from the institutional experience.

The Means and the End Teaching Digital Literacy to Nonprofit Students

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alicia Schatteman ◽  
Li-Yin Liu
Keyword(s):  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Service Organizations ◽  
Individual Student ◽  
Future Career ◽  
Public Service Organizations ◽  
Digital World ◽  
Student Reflections

For their future career, nonprofit students need to attain the necessary skills and knowledge to leverage the power of technology appropriately to serve their communities. As faculty, we need to design our courses to improve the digital literacy of our students and therefore improve their ability to effectively communicate, manage, and lead public service organizations. This article examines an undergraduate course called Community Organizations in a Digital World that responds to the new demands for innovations in nonprofit organizations. We present the overall course design, including assignments, and the findings of a pretest and a posttest of individual student digital literacy and student reflections on their digital literacy. Based on the two-stage survey, students’ digital literacy significantly improved when they completed the course. Moreover, students appreciated the importance and the difficulty of using social media in their future career. They also recognized the effect of algorithms and social justice issues of accessing technology. This evidence demonstrates the active learning exercises used in this course successfully improved students’ digital literacy.

scholarly journals “Thanks for the Assignment!”: Digital Stories as a Form of Reflective Practice

2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorayne Robertson ◽  
Janette Hughes ◽  
Shirley Smith
Keyword(s):  
Language Arts ◽  
Reflective Practice ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Course Design ◽  
New Literacies ◽  
Transformative Pedagogy ◽  
Classroom Experience ◽  
Digital Stories ◽  
Student Reflections ◽  
New London

In this article we examine pre-service teachers’ digital literacy stories and post-assignment reflections for evidence of transformative pedagogy. The language arts course design employs both a new literacies approach (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006) and a multiliteracies pedagogical framework (New London Group, 1996). These frameworks are also applied to help us examine the pre-service teachers’ digital stories and reflections. The data consist of approximately 150 digital stories and written student reflections collected over three years. We are encouraged by the finding that the multimedia nature of the assignment appears to help pre-service teachers construct new understandings of literacies, particularly when the digital stories are shared as part of the adult classroom experience. We conclude that digital stories hold potential to encourage pre-service teachers to think critically about how they were taught relative to the teachers they wish to become.

scholarly journals Design of a Completely New First Year Engineering Program at the University of Saskatchewan

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Maw
Keyword(s):  
Phase I ◽  
Course Design ◽  
School Curriculum ◽  
First Year ◽  
Program Structure ◽  
Delivery Methods ◽  
High School Curriculum ◽  
Graduate Attributes ◽  
College Of Engineering ◽  
The University

The rapidly evolving role of the engineering profession in society requires an engineering graduate with a more diverse and robust skill set than ever before. To answer this challenge, the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Engineering has embarked upon a complete redesign of its first year program. This project essentially started from a “blank slate” and posed the question, “If we could design any first year program that we wanted, what would we create?” The outcome of this endeavor is intended to be an extremely effective first year program that excites, engages and inspires students, and that holistically prepares them for the challenges to come in later years. In this paper, we review the broad learning objectives of our new first year, and the values that we applied to our decision making during its design.The overall project consists of three distinct phases: determination of required first year graduate attributes, development of program structure and delivery methods, and detailed course design. Phase I has been completed. It has left us with a detailed inventory of knowledge, skills, experiences, and attitudes, distributed across 23 content categories, that the College wants students to internalize by the end of their first year of study.We will outline the methods that we used to compile and refine this attribute inventory, including multiple approaches aimed at meaningful stakeholder engagement, surveys of existing first year programs across Canada, and an analysis of gaps and redundancies between the Saskatchewan high school curriculum and our existing first year program. We will also describe the 23 content categories used to organize the graduate attributes of the proposed first year program and how these categories are weighted in relative terms.  We share some of our key learnings from Phase I of the project, including which consultation strategies worked most effectively, why we focused on first year graduate attributes and not content, and key elements that will be emphasized in our new program. We will also briefly describe the process by which we are starting to develop the program structure and delivery methods i.e. Phase II.

scholarly journals Evaluating an Integrated Course Design Tool for Engineering Graduate Attributes Assessment

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.W. Brennan ◽  
R. Hugo ◽  
S. Li ◽  
M. Taboun
Keyword(s):  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Software Tool ◽  
Design Tool ◽  
Learning Activities ◽  
Continual Improvement ◽  
Graduate Attributes ◽  
Course Planning ◽  
Integrated Course Design ◽  
Wide Usage

The research reported in this paper isconcerned with developing a software tool (the IntegratedCourse Design Tool) based on the principle ofconstructive alignment. This tool is intended to assistinstructors with course planning by linking togethercourse learning outcomes, teaching & learning activities,and assessments. The rationale is to report on studentachievement in the context of the Engineers CanadaAccreditation Board’s graduate attributes and use thisinformation for continual improvement. Our experiencewith the ICDT has shown it to be a simple, intuitive toolfor course-based graduate attributes assessment andcontinual improvement; however, further work is requiredto extend the tool for program-wide usage.

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