Focus on the Faculties: Business

Eileen Thompson, Faculty CATLyst

Associate Dean heads up the Teaching and Learning Team

In 2006 the Faculty of Economics and Commerce was restructured into a single-school faculty and renamed the UWA Business School. The Business School is a comparatively large faculty with over one-hundred academic staff, a similar number of professional staff, and over 4,000 students. Soon after the formation of the School, Associate Professor Phil Hancock was appointed Associate Dean (Teaching and Learning).

This role is recognised within the School as the key position responsible for providing leadership in respect to all aspects of teaching and learning. As Associate Dean T&L, Phil chairs the Business School T&L committee, and represents the School on the University T&L committee and at the Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC) T&L Network meetings. Phil is also on the executive committee of the ABDC T&L Network. Within the School, Phil takes a consultative approach and collaborates with a diverse group of staff, including directors of undergraduate and postgraduate programs, coordinators of first year and postgraduate student experience, discipline chairs, the Instructional Designer and faculty CATLyst, information technology support staff and special project officers such as the PASS program administrative officer. Members of the T&L committee have also played an active role in contributing to the development of new initiatives and in ensuring the Faculty T&L operational priority of improving the quality of the student experience is achieved in a realistic and timely manner.

During the last twelve months, the Business School has implemented a number of initiatives aimed at maintaining and extending good teaching approaches and learning outcomes. They include the development of a number of online resources: a website to support sessional staff, Unit Outline templates, assessment guidelines, and the preparation of a single T&L Procedures Manual that addresses the needs of all teaching staff. These resources are available on the Business School StaffNet T&L website: .

The Business School values input from students towards improving their university experience. Representatives from our two key student bodies – ECOMS (Economics and Commerce Society) and the GMA (Graduate Management Association) – play an active role on the T&L committee. Over the last two years ECOMS and the GMA have also conducted their own student surveys that have highlighted some issues of concern to students and they have presented the T&L committee with a number of good ideas to improve the student experience. The Associate Dean T&L has also organised a small number of lunchtime student panel presentations where staff have been invited to listen to students’ views and participate in discussions with students on key aspects of learning, such as assessment, feedback and the use of WebCT and Lectopia. These have proven to be invaluable discussions and, as can be seen from the project described below, the feedback from students has guided the initiatives the T&L team have undertaken.

Improving Student Satisfaction (ISS) Scheme Projects

In 2007 and 2008 the Business School participated in two ISS projects. The first project evolved from student feedback requesting a more consistent approach to online learning, particularly in regard to the use and appearance of WebCT. As has been the case in other faculties, the Business School in recent years has experienced a steady growth in the number of units incorporating web-based teaching tools such as those provided by WebCT and it seemed timely to develop a standardised template that enabled a common ‘look’ and ‘feel’ to be achieved for all WebCT units. We anticipate all lecturers will adopt the new template when it becomes available in the second half of 2009. A staff survey was also conducted to gather information about which WebCT tools lecturers were using, and to identify who would like further training in WebCT. The findings indicated staff were particularly keen to take up the offer of individual face-to-face training and welcomed the additional support information in the form of online guidelines that had been developed. Many staff have benefited from the one-onone training, and the online resources are available for all University staff on the WebCT site.

The second ISS project was a collaborative effort between CATL and the faculty CATLysts that investigated the quality of formative feedback provided to students across all faculties. In the Business School, staff perceptions of feedback gathered through a survey confirmed the importance feedback plays in improving student learning outcomes, and most staff were generally satisfied with the feedback they provided (particularly given the resources available and the large class sizes in some units). Students, on the other hand, were not quite so satisfied, indicating in focus discussions that there was wide variation in the type of feedback provided and that written comments were often hard to read and quite superficial (e.g. ‘well done’, ‘good work’). A small project was conducted in an undergraduate unit (approximately fifty students) where students had an essay to write mid-semester. The aim of the project was to provide students with specific and constructive written feedback on their essay, to indicate how the mark related to the marking criteria provided in advance, and to ensure the written feedback was legible. Most students were very happy with this approach and agreed the feedback identified their strengths and provided suggestions on how to do better on their next essay. They felt the inclusion of comprehensive information in the unit outline about how to go about writing the essay, and the in-class discussions about the essay topic prior to them attempting the assignment, improved their levels of satisfaction.

PASS

PASS stands for ‘Peer Assisted Study Sessions’. This scheme was introduced into the Business School in the first semester of 2008 as one of our key initiatives aimed at improving the student experience. PASS is a peer-facilitated, cooperative student support scheme where students work together to consolidate understanding, reinforce key concepts, and develop effective study strategies. Introducing PASS has given first year Business students enrolled in some of the large core units the opportunity to work collaboratively in small groups with the help of competent, caring, subjectexperienced student peers.

PASS involves weekly timetabled sessions where trained, paid student leaders facilitate study sessions with small groups of students (eight to ten). In its first year of operation, PASS has been very popular, with over 400 students registered and 150 students regularly attending sessions. The sessions are meant to be highly interactive and student focused. The leader’s role is not to re-teach lecture material or to replace existing tutorials, but rather to facilitate discussion and active learning. PASS leaders create an environment where students are relaxed, can make friends and feel comfortable asking questions. Involvement with the program also provides leaders with a chance to improve their leadership, teamwork and communication skills – attributes future employers will value.

In PASS, the focus is on the group and on learning together. It is not a remedial program for ‘struggling’ students, but rather a program for all students who want to improve their academic performance. Peer learning is recognised as a powerful learning technique and previous studies have shown that students who regularly attend PASS achieve better marks, are less likely to fail, and have a stronger ground-up understanding of unit material. Informal feedback from students has been very positive. In a research study funded by the Business School T&L Committee, Dr Elisa Birch and Ian Li confirmed the finding that students who participated in PASS programs have higher marks at university than students who do not enrol in such programs. They also found the marks advantage is more pronounced among students studying quantitative subjects and among students who are at the lower end of the marks distribution.

Undergraduate Student Experience Coordinator

The Business School Undergraduate Student Experience Coordinator, Michael Sutherland, has implemented several initiatives to enhance commencing students’ transition to studying at UWA. Orientation and transition activities are geared towards establishing clear understanding of course structure and course content, academic expectations, relevant administrative processes, and support available both within the Business School and university-wide. Numerous initiatives tailored toward commencing students have been developed and executed in line with these objectives, including pre-enrolment sessions, numerous orientation/ transition information sessions and activities, and academic support programs.

A critical opportunity to influence the early student experience within the Business School is provided by the pre-enrolment sessions. Approximately 900 students attended the pre-enrolment sessions held in January, February and July 2008. The primary objective of these sessions is the provision of clear and concise information in order to minimise uninformed enrolment choices. The amount of effort and resources dedicated to ensuring that the requisite enrolment information is provided on a timely basis to the commencing students makes for more seamless enrolment days for all concerned. Furthermore, various orientation/transition sessions conducted in conjunction with academic staff, administrative staff, senior students, and the Business School undergraduate student society (ECOMS) are all designed to enhance student engagement during their transition to studying in the Business School. Activities such as the Link Week ‘get together’ attract over 200 commencing students, achieving the fundamental objective of opening the channels of communication between academic and administrative staff with commencing students in an informal and inclusive environment. The ‘getting started’ and ‘what to expect’ sessions held at the start of each semester have a primary focus of informing students of expectations and requirements during their first semester of study in the Business School. Sessions are degree-specific, which enables senior student leaders to be grouped with commencing students who are enrolled in the same degree. This allows commencing combineddegree students to gain the benefit of a senior student’s knowledge about requirements and expectations pertaining to both degrees.

Commencing students are also afforded access to wide-ranging academic and administrative support through a variety of avenues, such as the PASS program, study skills seminars, employment planning seminars, first year support site on WebCT, and information sessions providing comprehensive academic and administrative advice concerning degree structures and choice of majors. Harvard referencing workshops were conducted to demonstrate to commencing students the importance of ethical scholarship at UWA and more specifically how to correctly cite sources of information. Employment planning seminars – conducted by Careers Centre personnel – provided a basis for students to acquire the knowledge required to develop a portfolio of employability skills during their time studying at UWA. ‘Choosing majors’ and ‘degree structures’ sessions were designed to afford students the opportunity to obtain indepth discipline-specific information from academic and professional staff relevant to their study plans for the duration of their degree. The first year support site on WebCT is a useful platform for students to access a range of guides and learning resources pertinent to their study in the Business School. The site had over 10,000 hits in the first semester of going live.

Postgraduate Student Experience Coordinator

The Business School is demonstrating its commitment to enhancing the student experience for all its postgraduate students with the appointment of a dedicated Postgraduate Student Experience Coordinator. Susan Cowin intends to build on the success of existing initiatives and look at developing a range of new initiatives targeting the following key areas:

• Student Learning Support Systems
• Personal and Professional Development (including career development)
• Social and Cultural Activities
• Streamlined Student Processes

The ‘Survival Skills for Managers Seminars’ continue to meet the personal and professional development needs of current postgraduate students and alumni. Covering topics as diverse as ‘Networking’, ‘Doing Business in China’, ‘Think like a Consultant’, ‘Corporate Governance’, and ‘Managing Work–Life Balance’, the seminars are delivered by highprofile speakers from business. The seminars also offer participants the opportunity to network.

Over the coming months, other initiatives will include:

• further development of the transition program for new students;
• building on the current tailored offerings of study and writing skills workshops in conjunction with the Learning Advisers from Student Services
• developing intervention strategies to manage students at risk of failing or withdrawing
• piloting formalised study groups, similar to the PASS model, for postgraduate students
• initiating a career development program tailored

Distinguished Visiting Teacher

One of the objectives of the Australian Business Deans Council’s T&L Network is to arrange for at least one distinguished teacher to visit Australia each year. Last August Professor Larry Michaelsen visited UWA as a Distinguished Visiting Teacher and presented two workshops on Team- Based Learning and on Integrated Business Experience. Team-Based Learning is a comprehensive small-group based instructional process that is now being used in over 150 academic disciplines, over 200 schools in the US, and in 22 foreign countries. The second workshop presented an Integrative Business Experience (IBE) program that links student learning in three core courses to their experience in creating and operating an actual start-up business whose profits are used to fund a hands-on community service project.

Staff from a number of faculties and CATL attended the workshops and those who attended the session on teambased learning were very impressed with both Larry’s presentation and many of his thoughts on team-based learning and group assignments. In fact, a number of staff who attended the workshop are already incorporating changes to the way they set group/team assignments. Professor Michaelsen will be returning to UWA in May to present another workshop on Team-Based Learning.