School of Life and Environmental Sciences

School of Life and Environmental Sciences
School Teaching Retreat held on Friday June 20, 2014
Summary of the Day
The School of Life and Environmental Sciences Teaching Retreat was held on
Friday June 20 with 56 staff registered to attend. Dr Lei Pan from the School of IT and Kurt Sutton
from IKE also attended. We hope you enjoyed your day.
I would like to thank all staff who presented at the retreat – all the sessions were very informative
and gave us a lot to think about.
The booklet included a guide for drafting and using learning outcomes in courses, units and
assessment which was produced by Dr Siva Krishnan and his team. This booklet will be a
a very useful resource as the courses move through the course enhancement process.
Siva has asked for feedback on this document – any comments can be sent to:
Siva.krishnan@deakin.edu.au or jan.west@deakin.edu.au
Rachael Hains-Wesson gave a presentation on Blended Learning and has kindly shared her
presentation. This can be viewed at the following link:
http://prezi.com/bjrf-q5fq08r/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy (please note: it takes a
while for the videos to load).
Rachael has also requested feedback. Any staff who attended the retreat could you please fill in the
following online survey. The comments will assist Rachael and her team meet blended learning and
general teaching and learning needs for our staff: http://bit.ly/1oCTJJK
In the afternoon 3 break out discussion forums were held. The 3 presenters have provided a
summary of the discussions.
What next?
I am planning a Teaching and Learning lunchtime forum for staff to be held approximately once a
month. This will be video-linked to all campuses. Our first presenter will be Janine McBurnie who
will tell us more about her experiences completing the Master of Natural Resource Management and
how that will be used in teaching. Date to be confirmed.
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Is there anything else that you would like organised for Learning and Teaching? Did you
hear about something that the School Retreat that you would like more information
on?
Please let me know and I can try and organise something - jan.west@deakin.edu.au
Course Director’s Workshop
The day before the retreat, the Course Director Forum was also held at the management centre. Its
purpose was to collectively review the current teaching programs across LES and explore new
programs, especially in the areas of disciplinary interface and emerging new fields.
Thanks to Janelle for organising both the Course Directors
workshop and the School Teaching Retreat at the Deakin
Management Centre.
Thanks to Dr Anneke Veenstra for all the great photographs.
Janelle Pearce – Thank You!
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The First Year Experience – Janine McBurnie and Ty Matthews
Questions that were discussed at this session included:
1. What would your ideal first year student ‘look like’?
This stirred up considerable discussion, particularly regarding student professionalism.
We would like to see students exhibit the following:
1. Professional behaviour. Email contact is often inappropriate and has been observed across
campuses.
2. Basic generic skills (writing and use of Excel).
3. Enthusiasm and to be well prepared. Few students appear to read material when required.
4. Interactive
5. Greater attendance of lectures – significant challenge!
2. From the list gathered from question 1 – in our current cohort of first years, what is
missing?
All aspects listed above are missing.
3. How do you (unit chairs) go about helping first year students to become engaged with
Deakin and their degree?
O-week. Warrnambool. Small groups of students (5 or 6) are allocated to individual members of staff
who can act as mentors. This isn’t necessarily possible at other campuses.
End of year get together with 1st years (pizza and chat) just to gauge how they are tracking and to
ask them what they would like to see added/changed in course.
Bribes – Freddo frogs 
Different teaching styles (Sanja – fieldwork photos as an example).
Use of clickers to make ‘classes’ more interactive.
Regular email reminders. Not necessarily agreed on by all academics (facilitation versus spoon
feeding).
Other suggestions to consider for 2015:
Open labs for students to repeat classes. Perhaps this could provide opportunities for sessional staff
to run these after-hours sessions (e.g. PhD students)?
Combined O-week to facilitate greater interaction between our students across campuses. Geelong
and Burwood plan to visit Warrnambool in 2015 for 1-day get together. May need to discuss
alteration to O-week timetable.
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4. How do you go about assisting the students to gain the skills they need to become
independent learners?
Not discussed.
At Warrnambool, Ty highlights this during tutorials = that we are here to guide them and that they
should be willing to learn on their own and to read widely so that they expand their learning.
Universities are a place of learning (not simply a place to again their qualifications).
5. What can we do as a team, to present a more coordinated approach to first year – at
degree level, the campus level, and the school level?
Professionalism – highlight importance of professionalism during classes early in trimester. This
needs to be coordinated across campuses (and already is to some extent).
Sanja - Asks students to develop what they expect from her during initial classes, which is then
posted on DSO.
Basic generic skills. Ensure that unit chairs are directing students to the appropriate resources (e.g.
Student Life). Again, this appears to be happening at all campuses. Particularly aimed at students
that perform poorly during assessment tasks. Challenge – to ensure that students heed this advice
and seek assistance. This includes referencing.
Library sessions were mentioned. This is done on the Warrnambool campus, and I (Ty) think that his
could also occur on campus during O-week over several sessions?? Library staff run introductory
session during O-week at Warrnambool and Ty runs literature database searching for SLE103.
Janine – an additional one from me. It would be helpful if we could stick with a common first year
text book if possible (either Knox or Campbell).
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Re-imagining Assessment – Dr Siva Krishnan
Siva presented a talk on Course Learning Outcomes and a discussion forum in the afternoon on Rethinking Assessments
The booklet for the Teaching retreat included a document for drafting and using learning outcomes
in course, units and assessments. This was prepared by Siva and his team. Some of the ideas will get
you to think “outside the box”. It is not necessarily want you should do but provides ideas of what
you could do for assessments.
We would appreciate any feedback you have on this document. Feedback can be sent to:
Siva Krishnan – siva.krishnan@deakin.edu.au
Jan West – jan.west@deakin.edu.au
Break out session Rethinking Assessments – To provide staff with ideas of assessment
outside of test, practical report, exam etc.
Siva showed a very informative video about Susan and Robert – representative of the perceived
“good” and “bad” students. Susan is an example of a self-motivated highly engaged student who
works hard and asks all the “right” questions. Robert is an under-achiever who is less motivated
about his studies – a student who is aiming for a pass. We would all love a class full of “Susans” but
the reality is there are more and more “Roberts”. These students are not necessarily “bad” students
they simply have different expectations. The discussion followed as to discuss how do we cope with
a change in student cohort where the population of “Roberts” is increasing. What modifications
need to be made?
Summary of discussions
Strengths of the current teaching environment
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Staff have the ability to choose own tools
Feedback – rubric, comments; assesses competency
Weaknesses
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Exam – no feedback on what students have missed in their learning
Online assessment – has limitations
Rules of assessment – what are they?
Considerations
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Rubrics – good vs bad
Increase their opportunity to learn
Time of exam – is 2hrs enough
Expectations – bell curve
Opportunities
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Students have access to portfolios
Authentic / experiential learning
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Blended Learning – Dr Rachael Hains-Wesson
Rachael presented a talk entitled – Successful Blended approaches for learning: Is there any such
thing?
Below is the prezi link to this presentation:
http://prezi.com/bjrf-q5fq08r/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy
(Please note: it takes a while for the videos to load).
For those staff who attended the retreat Rachael has asked if you could fill in the following online
survey as this will help myself and the team meet blended learning and general teaching and
learning needs for staff: http://bit.ly/1oCTJJK
Delivering a unit in Cloud and located mode Breakout session outcomes:
What does a “good” blended unit look like and what kind of activities would it have?
1. Moving content to the cloud to make room for more discussions with students (moved
readings and videos on the cloud). Allow students time to talk out their ideas.
2. Interactive debates for f2f and online (preparation for students is difficult and especially if it
isn’t being assessed)
3. Online material can be re-used and this creates flexibility and being able to make time for
research and manage workloads
4. A variety of content on the cloud and can be refreshing for students
5. Resources at your finger tips
6. F2f – have a break every 20 minutes and use eLearning activity or a discussion
7. F2f more engagement by using the Cloud
8. Students don’t come to lectures due to many external reasons (mature-aged, working, being
parents etc)
9. Students are expected to take more responsibility for their own learning (independent
learning)
10. Working online in groups works well but more so when the community of the group has
already been developed
11. The term f2f and its purpose has changed over the years – online f2f is not the same as f2f
but can still be just as engaging
12. Debates, role play, group activities, use clickers, lecturettes, video presentations, pre-class
quizzes, worksheets to accompany online material, group work, reflective practice,
eportfolios, concept maps, tutorials, practical classes and field trips.
13. Interaction between students across campuses
14. Computer simulations
15. Work-integrated Learning
16. Need to make sure we meet different learning styles
17. Students are not always techno-savvy
18. We need to manage assessments as part of our teaching model effectively
19. Make sure we communicate expectations early and clearly to students
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Teaching Retreat – June 20, 2014
Mike Weston
Jan West
Leigh Ackland
Xavier Conlan
Raylene Cook
Janine McBurnie
Siva Krishnan
Jo Smissen
Rachael Hains-Wesson
Thanks to all our speakers
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Concluding Remarks