Curriculum Renewal
Mid way through 2008, La Trobe embarked on a University wide curriculum renewal program. This is to respond to the changing climate in the tertiary sector as well as to update and refresh our curriculum and the offerings available at La Trobe University.
The opening phase of this process was the establishment of the Curriculum Task Force which put together 25 leaders in teaching from across the University lead by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Belinda Probert and facilitated by Professor Tom Angelo, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Curriculum and Academic Planning) and Director of La Trobes new Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Centre.
The terms of reference of the Curriculum Task Force were:
- To elaborate a shared understanding of what would make La Trobes curricula distinctive, relevant, attractive, effective, efficient and sustainable, as espoused in the Universitys Strategic Plan 2008-2012;
- To examine and critique existing structures, goals, and outcomes of the Universitys curricula in relation to current and foreseeable regional, state, national and international trends and developments;
- To identify key performance outcomes, indicators, criteria, measures, and standards in relation to the distinctiveness, relevance, attractiveness, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of La Trobes curricula;
- To identify research-based design and implementation principles which can inform the review and redesign of existing units, programs, and courses of study and the design of new curricula;
- To recommend curricular, teaching, and learning policies, processes, and practices to:
• establish clear pathways into, within and between degrees;
• facilitate definition and achievement of unit and course-level learning outcomes; and
• facilitate definition and achievement of generic and/or University-wide graduate learning outcomes if there are to be any such. - To develop and implement a coherent information and communication strategy to keep the University's relevant communities informed of the Task-forces' work, and to allow systematic input and feedback from key groups;
- To recommend broad strategies and implementation guidelines to enable the review, revision, and (re)design of all University curricula within and across faculties by 2012.
After extensive work on the curriculum models available and hearing from experts in the area of curriculum renewal, the Task Force drafted a Green Paper that explained its work as well as making a series of recommendations to renew and revitalise the University curriculum.
The plan for the Task Force is to run a series of pilot projects in 2009 on how to renew the curriculum in line with the Task Force Green Paper. Once the pilot projects are evaluated for their effectiveness, a plan will be rolled out across the University based on the evaluations and the model of curriculum we wish to pursue pursuant to the Green Paper.
The Faculty of Law & Management's proposed pilot project is to gather information on existing graduate attributes/student learning outcomes from the various discipline areas within the Faculty, and then to map those attributes/outcomes across the current curriculum. We need to determine that existing attributes/outcomes are evaluated before students depart La Trobe and, where they do not exist, we need to develop a strategy to embed them in cornerstone/keystone/capstone subjects. These subjects may already exist, for example, in the form of introductory and final-year subjects, or they may need to be created as new cornerstone first-year and new capstone final-year subjects. Finally, we need to develop a strategy to evaluate the effectiveness of the curriculum to deliver the stated graduate attributes/student outcomes.
