Flexible Teaching and Learning at UWA

What is Flexible Teaching and Learning?

Flexibility values change and adaptability. Flexible teaching and learning is about providing educational programmes in ways that meet the changing needs of learners. It is responsive to student needs.

Flexible teaching and learning provides students with:

• Greater access to learning
• Opportunities to combine work and education
• Control over how they learn as well as what they learn
• Greater choice in the content as well as the organisation of the learning programme

Flexible teaching and learning is often linked with the sheer pace of technological change and is often equated with technology and computers. At UWA the emphasis is on using technology to do what it does best in order to free people to do what they do best.

Technology can be used to help students gain information and develop skills so that academic staff can focus on interacting with students and challenging them individually. If computers can be used to master fundamental concepts and for developing skills then academic staff can be freed to challenge students to creatively apply what they have learned. "Computers for information - people for interaction".

Flexible teaching and learning environments generally aim to be student centred and so focus on activities with which students interact. Resources and content support these activities.

See also the Flexible Programme Delivery Task Force Report (1997) which can be downloaded from http://www.teachingandlearning.uwa.edu.au/tl/committee/discussion_papersreports.

Why is UWA promoting Flexible Teaching and Learning?

In recent years, universities throughout the world have had to adapt to a widespread requirement to be more closely aligned with the needs of the economy and to produce employable graduates. This demand has come from:

• Government
• Employers and professions
• Students and graduates themselves

The world of work is constantly changing and no matter how well prepared a graduate may be through their studies lifelong learning will be required to manage these constant changes.

UWA recognises that it has a role to play in delivering high quality professional education including post graduate education. It needs to continue developing modes of study that will enable it to compete effectively in these markets. Learning in this century will be increasingly tied up with work and everyday life. It will be required on demand and will be organised in such a way that it fits the lifestyle and needs of individuals.

UWA also has a primary concern for the effectiveness of its teaching.

In an era of rapid change, with a need for lifelong learning, it is more appropriate to move towards a student centred approach to learning. Flexible learning is based on a constructivist view of learning which is strongly linked to student centred learning, self directed learning, active learning, problem based learning. In other words, flexible learning is based on the best knowledge of how students learn most effectively. It encourages greater student responsibility to learning as well as deep approaches to learning.

Expectation of Academics

One of the greatest benefits for academics in the development of flexible teaching and learning material is the opportunity to reflect about the pedagogical underpinnings of their teaching material and the way they teach. Developing flexible teaching and learning resources provides an opportunity to re-engineer teaching material to make effective use of the appropriate technologies.

Of necessity the role of the academic will change from the "centre of knowledge" to the facilitator of learning. Assessment strategies will change.

Ultimately the success of any organisational transformation depends upon the skills and information of the individuals that constitute the organisation's community. No one is coercing staff to make the change if it does not improve their current teaching programme. The University can reasonably expect academic staff:

• to be aware of trends towards flexible teaching and learning,
• to reassess their existing teaching practices in the light of what is now known about the ways that students learn best, and
• to be willing to explore the advantages to be gained by flexible teaching and learning.

A listing of local centres at UWA that have developed expertise and skills in order to contribute support services to teaching staff in the area of flexible program delivery can be found here.