LEARNING FOR TOMORROW UPDATE
Thank you to all students who participated in the consultation process for the Learning For Tomorrow Strategy 2020-2022. The next iteration has been released.
Curtin has responded to your feedback on this issue and made changes.
The Learning for Tomorrow Strategy has been significantly shortened, from five full pages to just one page with a set of guiding principles. The Guild agrees with the principles, which are in line with the feedback students provided.
We note that while the previous iteration proposed to phase out lectures, the new iteration states that Curtin will provide “face-to-face learning opportunities” with “on-line learning when desired”.
This appears to honour students' key demand that we have in-person options for all parts of our learning - lectures, workshops, and labs.
The implementation of these guiding principles will be up to each faculty. The Guild expects that students will be partners in co-designing learning in their faculties.
The Guild will continue to advocate for in-person options for all parts of our learning.
As semester begins, if you have any concerns about classes being moved online in your faculty, please contact your Faculty Representatives
STUDENT CONSULTATION
Curtin University’s Learning For Tomorrow Strategy 2020-2022 will impact the way students learn in the future. The amount of online learning, the future of large scale lectures and non-lecture learning formats are being assessed as part of this proposal.
To ensure the student body was consulted throughout this process, the Curtin Student Guild conducted three consultation workshops and ran a survey to gather student feedback on the Learning For Tomorrow Strategy 2020-2022.
Thank you to all those students who participated in this process.
The Guild has compiled a report based on student feedback which has been submitted to the university.
The report is available here.
What You Told Us
Students prefer in-person learning
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The majority of students want to keep in-person lectures with access to live streaming and recorded lectures and they want them to be engaging, interactive and shorter
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Students needed more information about the digital resources proposed to support learning, and felt that the “podcasts, learning objects; video content and other digital objects” were not adequate replacements for lectures
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Mature age and postgraduate students tended to be in favour of removing lectures due to increased flexibility to balance career and family with studies
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82% of respondents said they would not be satisfied paying the same fees if more of their learning was delivered online
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Do not continue to use recycled content
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Online platforms are not meeting student expectations
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Online lectures are not engaging or interactive and disconnect students from the university experience with their peers
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Students preferred learning ratio was 70-80% in person
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84% of students said an increase in online learning would result in less time spent on campus with 13% saying it would have no impact and 3% indicating they would spend more time on campus
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Students agreed that Curtin University should increase collaborations with industry partners when designing university courses
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Students were not convinced enhanced online learning would increase their preparedness for employment with 69% of respondents believing it would not. Only 8% of respondents felt it would assist them
What is the estimated percentage of your learning experience that you would prefer to be online vs in person?
How satisfied would you be with paying the same fees if more of your learning was delivered online?
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There was support for additional online resources but not as a replacement for in-person learning
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More support for online and regional students was welcomed
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There was concern about internet connectivity, campus WiFi and Curtin technology
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Online study was identified as an accessibility issue for many, especially equity groups
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Participants highlighted the importance of transparency and clear communication from the university during consultation processes
Recommendations
Here are the Guild's recommendations:
- Retain in person lectures.
- Greater support for external students via improved learning resources and support and creating more interactive learning experiences.
- Increase in person learning.
- Maintain autonomy and choice for students with both in-person learning and online supporting resources.
- Improve lecture delivery to enhance engagement.
- More robust processes for student consultation with emphasis on bottom up collaboration.
- Strategy needs to improve accessibility for equity groups impacted by the changes
- More information required in the Differentiated Delivery section.