As anticipated, 2018 is shaping up to be a very busy but incredibly exciting year! With nearly a full complement of staff, the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT) together with colleagues from across the University are pushing ahead on a range of initiatives which will help us achieve our goals related to excellence and innovation in education as set out in Making a Difference: The 2025 Agenda.
In line with this, I am pleased to advise that the review of work integrated learning (WIL) is underway and being led by Professor Jan Orrell. As many of you would know, Professor Orrell is an expert in the field of higher education and particularly WIL and we are fortunate to have her at Flinders in the College of Education, Psychology and Social Work. Professor Orrell will be supported in this project by Ms Shani Sniedze-Gregory, a current (just finishing) doctoral student with a good background in education and WIL, and Ms Abby Witts, an experienced research assistant who is also a graduate of Flinders. This will be a very inclusive process and as such you will all be invited into discussions at various points during the review.
Information and Digital Services (IDS) and CILT are working together to move forward to further develop our learning analytics capabilities which includes infrastructure, policy development, implementation strategies and data science elements. It is a large and complex project but one which will provide Flinders with key capacity to further improve outcomes for our students. The Learning Analytics Community of Practice is active in helping to guide this work and is open to any staff members.
Related to this work is a project that we are calling Enabling Educational Excellence with Technology. This project will review the range of technology that supports our educational experiences, particularly in the online space. This project will ensure we have the right technology to support excellence and innovation in learning and teaching. Of course, this needs to be driven by the type of experience that we and our students want, and as such the background work on this has been underway since late 2017.
Work is also underway on the revision of the educational quality framework. This includes the overall framework and review of the various elements that underpin, support and evidence the quality and excellence of education at Flinders. The Deans of Education, along with colleagues from a variety of service areas, are involved in this work. While we are currently at an early stage, there will be many opportunities for all staff to be involved in these discussions.
While these larger projects are critical, the day-to-day business of supporting academics and students, improving our service, and embedding the revised structure continues in earnest.