Community Conversation

Technology has a major role to play in this sector, so much indeed is possible with the applications of Office365, some of this transition has occurred pre-pandemic though a great deal of us (staff and students) have been thrust into this space in the deep end. I love it. Across MS Teams into applications like Sway, there's very little that can't be done. There's a great deal of education that needs to be done in this space and there's a long way to go – in order for anyone to access anything, anytime from anywhere with any device, then we really need this technological space to be second nature. I feel that people have been left behind in this process and given all that's happened I recognise this as being inevitable. More and more group work is happening online at the moment (from a student perspective) and no doubt a lot could be done better, if people were aware of how it could be done better. Working smarter, not harder. See less

“How Covid-19 is changing the way we educate” (https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/4-ways-covid-19-education-future-generations/) is a great article to read. Of the 4 ways that the authors suggested, I am most inspired by the second and the third ones. Educators will soon no longer knowledge-holders because students can gain access to knowledge, or even learn a technical skill, through a few clicks in the internet. In fact, students now can access free on-line learning resources, tutorials and lectures on many courses, e.g. Project Management or Media and Communication. The role of educators therefore will need to move towards facilitating students in their learning journeys. In some of the universities in Australia (e.g Torrens University Australia), lecturers are called “learning facilitators”. There are both learning facilitators and academic skills facilitators in a course. With regards to “teaching life skills needed for the future”, I agree with Samantha about the importance of emotional intelligence in teaching and learning. I also strongly agree with the authors of this article who said that resilience and adaptability would be crucial for the next generations entering work. Personally, I am very keen on conducting a research on students’ adaptability skills (how students respond to covid-19, the role of adaptability on their academic and non-academic outcomes, conditions/factors to enhance students’ adaptability, and implications for future learning and teaching strategy). See less

Mary a high achieving high-school student wants to come to RMIT in 2025. She isn’t sure long term what she wants to do she is currently thinking it will be something like electrical engineering or fashion design – because she enjoys the technical challenges of making Cosplay costumes. To start with she wants to focus on developing time management because they know it is important moving forward – but they aren’t sure what subject area they actually want to focus on. Mary might choose to enrol in the time management pathway for 4 weeks. During this time she will get to learn and work on projects with other students – these other students may be at very different career stages and can provide some peer guidance on how they chose their discipline areas. After 4 weeks, Mary decides she wants to keep going with both subject areas, so she enrols in the oral communication skill pathway and will work with engineering discipline coaches at the end of this pathway Mary will complete tasks and be assessed on her capacity to present information verbally in multiple context (Keynote presentations, meeting discussions and when asking for help), additionally she will be assess from the same tasks on her discipline understanding and the accuracy and validity of the actual content presented.
Mary knew she would be busy with other things, so she wanted to spread this work out over the next two months to ensure she would be able to meet all her deadlines, and was able to book in her assessments when and as they fit her availability, using the available 'assessment booking calendar'. See less

We need to meet learners where they are, find out what they need and give it to them. The higher education certificate is a step towards recognising this. What if rather than focusing on us developing a curriculum for students, we gave students a mentor or guide who has able to support them in navigating the diversity available within RMIT.

Maybe central pillars should be created around skills and we actively teach people skills – and that is what the various courses and assessment verify. In parallel there are coaches or discipline experts who assess and verify the validity of the discipline knowledge.

I could image a pathway where students pick out the skills they want to develop, and the discipline areas they want to explore and then determine the timeframe they will work on the projects for.

Overall this type of approach will allow RMIT graduates to:
• Have well developed skills in areas they choose to focus (discipline websites could support students in making decisions, as can discipline coaches)
• Have technical expertise within defined areas
• Value out of discipline knowledge which may be able to solve emerging problems within the field.
Engage in learning as and when they want.

I will work through an example in my next post. See less

First of all, the key term is student-centred learning. I think any educator needs to take account all types of learners – kinesthetic, auditive and visual learners, as today most of the traditional lectures are designed around auditive/visual learners rather than dominantly kinesthetic (learning by doing) students. Therefore encouragement of the use of simulation games, debate, project-based learning, roleplays, hackathons and IPOL (industry partnered online learning) should be encouraged.

Make sure all video-based learning (for example webinars) include captions for students with special needs and cultural diversity.

Giving feedback in a meaningful way – always including explicit explanations behind any numeric grade.

Assessing students knowledge and skills related to specific topics prior to any course, as every individual enters with different background experiences, and then agilely design the class in a way that the more experienced won't be bored and the less experienced won't be confused, thus not only teaching the "average" student.

Using students feedback to improve during the course and after for next year group. See less

Our ability to learn is so closely linked to our emotional state and this aspect of the student experience is not sufficiently emphasised. Student facing staff (Lecturers and above like myself) are usually content experts but we are not necessarily skilled in a) recognising the importance of emotional state to learning or b) facilitating students to access a positive emotional state. In the NEXT RMIT, I envision a greater emphasis on emotional intelligence training for academic staff. This will support students to learn in any circumstances they face, as well as supporting academic staff in the continual learning journey that we are on. See less

Deepening our skills in assessment will be a critical factor in how well we can facilitate access to and leverage the multi-sector opportunities we have available for our learners. Assessment not only of a learner’s prior formal and informal learning but also their personal capabilities plus facilitating their own self-assessment and reflection of their career and personal learning goals will ensure a tighter match between skills and knowledge gaps and their skills and knowledge needs. Keeping learner journey’s tightly aligned with their needs and their goals will help them thrive. See less