Professor Beverley Oliver
2011 ALTC National Teaching Fellow
Biography
Director of the Office of Assessment, Teaching and Learning at Curtin University since 2007, Professor Oliver has extensive teaching experience, and a distinuished record of higher education project leadership, publication and presentation. With a discipline background in humanities (languages, literature, media and technology), she now heads university- and sector-wide projects and activities. Having completed her 2009 ALTC Fellowship, that focussed on benchmarking the achievement of graduate attributes and emplyability skills at course level, she is also leading a team creating an ALTC Good Practice Guide entitled 'Assuring Graduate Outcomes', due for publication in mid-2011.
Assuring graduate capabilities: evidencing levels of achievement for graduate employability
Conversations about graduate capabilities inevitably turn to standards: academic staff, business and industry, the community, students and graduates seek clarity on the level of achievement required for safe practice and professional readiness. Course (program) leaders, students and industry partners are often guided by predetermined lists of generic attributes, professional competencies and outcomes. However, many seek clarity about the level of performance required during the course, at graduation and beyond (for example, how well a journalist or pharmacist is expected to be able to communicate at graduation). In addition, in an increasingly evidence-based culture, the sector is seeking new ways to assure the achievement of such standards.
This fellowship proposes to engage curriculum leaders of undergraduate courses from any discipline to work with their colleagues, industry partners, students and graduates to:
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define course-wide levels of achievement in key capabilities, articulated through standards rubrics
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implement strategies to evidence student achievement of those standards (through student portfolios and course review processes, for example)
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share the validity, challenges and opportunities of such approaches through scholarly publications.
Colleagues are encouraged to access an introduction to these concepts and join a community of practice and scholarship at <http://tiny.cc/boliver>.
2009 ALTC Teaching Fellow,
Curtin University, Western Australia
Fellowship completed: Late 2010
Benchmarking partnerships for graduate employability
Universities review curricula drawing on a range of data, including feedback gathered through the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) and internal feedback systems which rarely include graduate and employer perceptions of graduate achievement of attributes and employability skills. This fellowship sought to address this gap by disseminating three tools to partner universities to engage in benchmarking for improved attribute and employability skill attainment in specific courses. The fellowship engaged partner universities to voluntarily engage in benchmarking with selected peer institutions (within agreed confidentiality boundaries) so that teaching teams could improve course curricula and improve stakeholder perceptions of graduate employability. The tools were: the Graduate Employability Indicator surveys, a portfolio of course review evidence from a range of data sources (such as the Australian Graduate Survey, course demand, student progress and retention, graduate and employer feedback); and a curriculum mapping tool which creates visual analyses of key aspects of the curriculum (such as where graduate attributes are developed and assessed, assessment types, learning experiences and resources, career development learning and curriculum themes).
Fellowship Discipline: All disciplines
Institutions: Curtin University
Fellowship Discipline: Non-disciplinary Institutions: Curtin University of Technology
Fellowship due for completion: Late 2012
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