News Archive

The Teaching and Learning (T&L) Committee meets monthly - the following is a summary of some of the significant highlights.

Business School Board - Presentation
At a presentation on teaching and learning issues - business leaders' comments and questions indicated a genuine concern for this area in the Business School. This type of engagement with industry is invaluable and a key strength for our School. The need for better industry engagement is highlighted in the Australian Business Deans Councils' Carrick scoping study: Business as usual? A collaborative and inclusive investigation of the existing resources, strengths, gaps and challenges to be addressed for sustainability in teaching and learning in Australian university business faculties. (Report to be published later this year)

Tutor training and CEQ grant
The fourth tutor training workshop for all new tutors was run, with 18 participants and 4 staff attending. The workshop, which was designed to provide basic skills to assist new tutors to be more effective, has received positive evaluations. I would like to acknowledge and thank Eileen Thompson for arranging the workshop. Thanks also to Michael Sutherland, Naomi Segal and Emily Sheridan for their assistance in leading discussion groups during the workshop.

The Business School has developed new resources for tutors. These are now available on the T&L web site at: www.biz.uwa.edu.au/home/teaching_and_learning2/teaching_and_learning

Focus interviews were held with tutors to gain feedback on the use of the online resources and the value of the training session. Feedback was positive and various suggestions for improvement have been noted. One significant suggestion included the establishment of a discussion board so tutors could maintain contact and exchange ideas and share experiences with other tutors.

Teaching and Learning Panel
The Business School held a panel where six students from the School shared their views on their teaching and learning experiences at UWA and, in particular, in the program they are undertaking at the Business School. The panel event is intended to be an opportunity for staff to receive feedback from students in a non threatening environment and promotes student engagement. The students shared a range of positive and negative experiences.

Excellence in Teaching Awards
Details of the awards are now available on the T&L section of the Business School website. We are currently developing an online nomination system and there will also be a category for various types of programs that enhance the student experience.

Teaching and Learning Research Grants
The Business School T&L Committee seek to promote research activities associated with the scholarship of teaching and learning by the provision of a research grants scheme. Funding is accessible through a competitive application process. The application for these grants has been amended so that staff can now apply any time they have a project they feel is worthy of some funding assistance. To date we have received two applications. Decisions on these two applications were made at the August meeting and results will be announced soon. A total of $50,000 is available and grants can be awarded for amounts up to a maximum of $20,000.

For more details go to: https://www.biz.uwa.edu.au/home/teaching_and_learning2/research_grants

Visits to UK Universities
During the month of May I visited several universities in the UK including Cambridge, Sheffield and Bristol. A great deal of information was gathered as well as a few ideas for consideration. In general the UWA Business School T&L compares favourably with the universities visited. Many of our resources and grants were of significant interest to the people I met. For a full copy of the report please contact me on [email protected]

Tip of the Month
The following website contains many different resources ranging from good ice breakers for that first class to case studies and tips of the week are often very useful for new teaching ideas. Visit https://www.developfaculty.com/

Associate Professor Phil Hancock
Associate Dean-T&L