FLINDERS UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF EDUCATION, HUMANITIES AND LAW

FACULTY COMMITTEE ON TEACHING AND LEARNING

AGENDA 3/2014 A meeting of the Faculty Committee on Teaching and Learning will be held at 2.00pm on Thursday 5 June 2014 in Room 4.42 Education Building.

* 1. ORDER OF BUSINESS 1.1 Welcome 1.2 Apologies 1.3 Additions and alterations to the Agenda 1.4 Starring of items

* 2. MINUTES FCTL 19/2014 Page 1

* 3. BUSINESS ARISING FROM MINUTES 3.1 Committee Membership – postgraduate student representative

3.2 Summer Teaching Period FCTL 20/2014 Page 7

Although we await release of the University’s review of the inaugural Summer Teaching Period, it is now necessary, and bordering on urgent, that plans be finalised for offerings to be available to students in Summer 2015. The attached email was recently circulated to Schools and members, especially School representatives, are urged to progress decision-making at that level.

3.3 Student Success Pilot Program and School Monitoring of First Year Students

FCTL 21/2014 Page 9 Members will recall the presentation at an earlier meeting by Associate Professor Salah Kutieleh, Director, Transition Office, about the operations of that office and, in particular, the pilot initiative for contacting commencing students who might be at risk in their studies. Use of the “at risk” language is being discouraged in favour of “student success” terminology. An interim report was recently presented to the DVCA’s Educational Matters Advisory Group (EMAG) and is attached for the consideration of members (please note that this report is still categorised as in draft form). Under existing protocols, the Schools and Faculty must also take account of first-year students’ early academic undertakings (or lack thereof) and performance, and take steps to support those students who may be exhibiting signs of difficulty. This leads to a Faculty report submitted to the DVCA for transmission and consideration by the First Year Teaching and Transition Advisory Group (FYTTAG). The Semester 1, 2014 Faculty report is also attached.

3.4 eAssignments Program FCTL 22/2014 Page 32 A status report from the Electronic Assignments Management team (EAM), which includes plans for future developments, is attached for information and discussion. Members of the Committee again have the opportunity to report on their perceptions of how the new system is operating within their Schools or other constituencies.

3.5 Online and Blended Learning Development Program School representatives will be requested to report on developments with respect to this key Faculty and University priority.

3.6 2014 EHL Faculty Awards for Excellence in Teaching Confirmation of arrangements for the assessment sub-committee, including meeting date.

* 4. REPORT FROM THE CHAIR

* 5. BUSINESS

5.1 Student Feedback

5.1.1 SETS The Chair reported to the recent EMAG meeting on relevant matters, including the following:

• Experience within at least parts of EHL that many students do not own mobile devices that will permit them to complete SETs in class by that means. Although this appeared to surprise those from science and business disciplines, others at EMAG indicated this accorded with their own experience. What this means, along with the known problem that this methodology is dependent upon the size and representative characteristics of those students who are in attendance on the day of administration of the SETs, is that use of mobile devices is not, by itself, going to be a solution to the recent phenomenon of low student response rates. Nevertheless, it will continue to be encouraged by the DVCA and Planning Services as at least one means of increasing responses as there is evidence that it can have that effect.

• The “clunkiness” of the tool in FLO that facilitates topic coordinators to provide formal responses to SET-based feedback, including the character limits imposed and the fact that there was an “art” to providing responses that indicated that changes would not be made without conveying a defensive or dismissive tone, was reported to EMAG. The DVCA referred the former to the Acting Director of CEdICT for investigation and the latter to CUT/CEdICT for consideration of how to best provide training and support to assist staff with the articulation of reasons why certain feedback might not lead to direct changes. The DVCA specifically acknowledged that there would be instances in which it would be a legitimate professional response not to make changes notwithstanding the SET results.

• Some changes will be made to the SET forms and the communications that are sent out about SETs that will operate to de-personalise these so as to better reflect the fact that what students are evaluating are activities and behaviours rather than persons.

5.1.2 Other Surveys

The strategy of giving graduates the national Course Experience Questionnaire forms at the time of graduation was utilised at the September 2013 Graduation Ceremonies. Planning Services Unit reports that response rates improved substantially over previous years. The same approach was used recently at the April 2014 Graduation Ceremonies and response rates have increased by 56%. As data from this survey feeds into public information, including the Good Universities Guide, this change in practice may have reputational effects for the university by allowing for a broader and more representative sample of student views.

5.1.3 Re-Frame Project FCTL 23/2014 Page 43 CUT and the Planning Services Unit recently cooperated on an investigation designed to make it simpler for staff to access and use a range of teaching evaluation tools and to get timely and useable feedback from students, especially for formative purposes. The so-called Re-Frame Report has been compiled and was presented to EMAG. Key recommendations concern a single gateway to access all feedback tools and potential investment in the tool known as “Touchpoint Survey”, which facilitates students providing feedback on their learning and their responses to the teaching program at a time or times when adaptations can be made that will have immediate impacts on the way the topic is proceeding. The Executive Summary is attached for information and consideration by Committee members.

5.1.4 University Draft Feedback Plan FCTL 24/2014 Page 60 In 2013, the Vice-Chancellor’s Committee authorised the Planning Service Unit temporarily to scale back its survey activities in favour of examining closely how the University might ensure that it obtains more extensive and optimal feedback, especially from students, that will better inform and ultimately optimise teaching and learning at the University. The Chair was selected to represent all faculties on the Working Group. A Draft Feedback Plan is nearing completion and the attached information was presented recently to EMAG (note, as the draft plan is not yet finalised, the link given does not work). This document is attached for information and consideration. It will be a key feature of the process that wide consultation will take place on the draft plan as the next stage of development.

5.2 Examination Office Matters Various queries have been raised about the policies and practices of the University Examinations Office, and it would be useful for Committee members to provide their views as a possible basis for raising concerns with either the Examinations Office or the DVCA. In particular:

• the process of communicating with topic coordinators about examination submission that includes a spreadsheet indicating which topics (and which coordinators) have or have not submitted examination papers at a given date may be questionable as a matter of both utility and appropriateness.

• the practices of the Examinations Office in dealing with direct student requests for remote or special examinations due to student travel arrangements, effectively refusing such requests but directing students to topic coordinators for individual negotiations, also may be concerning.

• a third matter concerns students with disabilities who assert that they are not able to undertake the scheduled examination at the same time as all other candidates and request that the same examination paper be administered at a different time (either before or after the scheduled sitting).

* 6. REPORTS

6.1 Yunggorendi, First Nations Centre for Higher Education and Research 6.2 Faculty Scholar FCTL 25/2014 Page 62

The 2014 EHL Faculty Scholar, Dr Jessie Jovanovic, has finalised her project documentation, including budget, and submits it to the Committee for their information. She would welcome feedback, especially concerning recruiting colleagues from each of the Schools to participate in the initiative in Semester 2, 2014.

6.3 Schools 6.3.1 School of Education

6.3.2 School of Humanities and Creative Arts

6.3.3 Law School FCTL 26/2014 Page 64

The Law School has recently adopted a policy aimed at “reducing stress for students in the event of technology failure and minimising the risk of breaches of academic integrity.” The details are provided for the interest of Committee members, especially in case they wish to consider its utility in other areas of the Faculty.

6.4 Centre for University Teaching 6.5 Student Learning Centre 6.6 CEdICT 6.7 ICT and Flexible Delivery 6.8 Student matters

* 7. ANY OTHER BUSINESS 8. NEXT MEETING

Thursday 3 July 2014.

Olga Pinto Executive Officer