Community Conversation

As a well established globally operating Australian dual sector tertiary education provider with great applied research, industry and community connection, as well as a strong diversity and sustainability track record, we should be confident and continue to focus on our areas of existing strength and difference. RMIT L&T should be about a well designed and limited range of educational experience(s). These educational experiences should be grounded in direct connection with fellow students, key staff, RMIT research activity, community, relevant industry and government bodies. They should also be accessible and where-ever possible have sustainability and indigenous perspective(s) and understanding designed in. See less

The future of learning and teaching needs to be consistently focussed on inclusion and accessibility. Consider how to incorporate a diverse range of content in the curriculum and question what is being taught and why. Additionally not everyone has access to cutting edge equipment and technologies especially in light of what has been learnt during the current experience with Covid 19 and lockdowns. Bandwidth can mean students frequently drop out of an online class, or cannot access an LMS easily on their smart phones, or a household has one computer and needs to juggle the demands of 3 or 4 family members. How can education be made more accessible for remote regional and international students? Students who work and /or with caring responsibilities? How can students from different socio-economic background be better supported? See less

Edited:In my (Utopian) RMIT L&T future:
Adaptability is a skill that is taught across the curriculum – we plan and design for this.
We articulate and measure other ways of learning – new models and approaches that are based on flexibility, authenticity, personalisation, and ARE digital (digitally enhanced).
We harness the power of community enterprise and humanistic skills development – develop ethical social citizens.
We re-imagine our certificate/degree credentialing structures. See less

Alternatively do we learn from past experience and the apprenticeship schemes and develop the system where we allow students to learn skills on the job – maybe tap into a professional community in a formalised manner to explore what is possible and what the background to the techniques and approaches they are using. We could pitch university as the place to make and create networks, and focus on creating the opportunities for students to build and develop their professional and cross-discipline networks while they are actively studying and into their future. See less

Working and delivering on real world projects from the first day.

I would imaging a 1-2 day induction and then multifunctional teams with emerging expertise solving real problems either small scale deliverable projects (ie monitoring and reporting on changes in City of Melbourne open data) or grand challenges (to use the Gates Foundation term – where students who don’t know what the discipline style constraints are ideate how a problem could be solved) working together to achieve outcomes.
These projects could be done a short intensive 2 part hackathons. Project briefing & team formation followed by a period (3 week – 6 months) of research, then an intensive 2-5 day period to finalise optimise and present the outcome. This could be cyclical with a new team coming in to iterate and 1-2 people saying on as ‘coaches’ to ensure knowledge and experiences are built upon rather than having to be redesigned.

This style would also provide an opportunity for foundational and experienced team members to actively contribute, industries who have problems to solve would be able to actively engaging with a range of students, and potentially bring one of the teams into their organisation on a paid basis to deliver the outcomes.
This hackathon approach would allow students who have to work while studying to take short periods of leave to participate in the ‘hackathons/intensives’ and then fit their research and learning around their typical work schedule. The paid placements to further iterate and refine their ideas and learning will then allow them to earn an income in their chosen career. See less

For the future, the University’s learning and teaching goal should be to design learning programs that provide the kinds of knowledge, skills and competencies our graduates require to succeed. This includes striking a balance between creating curriculum that addresses the immediate needs of work, whilst also projecting to a future and future occupations that are, as yet, uncertain. The identification of the needs of work are being developed by technology companies on the basis of predictive analytics. Burning Glass Technologies, for example, provide real-time labour market data products and analysis by scraping millions of job postings and resumes on the internet to provide insights into new in-demand skills for the changing job market. Faethm, an AI analytics, SaaS platform, shows the impact of automation and technology on current workforces and the types of characteristics needed to effect both role change and capability uplift. Ultimately, however, setting the conditions for a learner to love learning, over their lifetime, will best serve both an individual and society itself.
Second, to create a culture and learning environment within which learners are not just capable professionals, but also ethically centered, sensitive intellectuals and critical citizens. Learning should not be simply reduced to the imperatives of societal economic growth, with prioritised skills at the cost of its wider value and function. Instead, learners should be engaged in social and human rights, active democratic participation and critical citizenship. Learners should have the capability to create new knowledge, challenge, debate and have thoughtful engagement in wider society. This must take place within both a local and global context, where students can engage with important issues facing our world. See less

The future of learning at RMIT could be one that embraces an identity in the digital frontier and new ways of recognising learning achievement. There is a need to develop innovative business models and new compelling value propositions and products to meet current and future societal needs. Data-led insights into the shifting nature of the market necessitate agile, responsible approaches outside the traditional scope of higher education institutions. There are also significant opportunities for the University to assist new learners with their goals, both in Australia and globally, both within and outside the traditional university context.
The University’s learning environments must encompass digitally-enabled learning. It should almost go without saying that to meet the above functions of higher education, learning must embrace the affordances of digital. At a minimum, this must be quality, mobile and app-based learning. At its more sophisticated, there are a multitude of possibilities for learner engagement to embrace including artificial intelligence, machine learning, the internet of things, AR-VR augmented and virtual worlds, chatbots and virtual assistants, robotics, blockchain for rich, engaging learning experiences, and new ways of social connection and collaboration. The digital frontier in teaching and learning also refers to the University positioning itself as an educator for the needs of individuals, industry, government and society, as well as taking advantage of the possibilities that digital transformation presents for institutions. There is a need to shift to a technology architecture and environment that engineers intelligent digital services, technologies and platforms. There must be the application of data analytics — including automation and artificial intelligence — to drive business processes and create the foundation for an agile organisation. See less