The new Academic Quality Policy was approved at the August Academic Senate.
● This policy allows the University to formulate strategies for quality assurance and quality enhancement of its academic activities, within the context of its statutory obligations and the University’s strategic priorities.
● It forms a key component of the draft Education Framework as it enables the 2030 University Strategy and a driver of our Education Principles and Curriculum Model.
● This policy applies to all aspects of our academic activities and all of the staff involved
in these activities.
● It also applies the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle in an academic setting.
The Assessment Policy and Assessment – Academic Progress Procedure was refined earlier this year. It was signed off by the Senate and implemented in June 2021. Updates include:
● The implementation of three stages of Academic Progress at the end of the 202130 session.
Stage One – Support offered
Stage Two – Support required and
Stage Three – Considered for exclusion.
● The use of the ‘Monitoring and Support Tool’ (MAST) system for all students (international and domestic) for accurate reporting on student progress.
● Students at Stage 2 are directed to create an Academic Progress Plan within the Student Portal.
● Further information for students is available on the Academic Progress webpage.
The Student Skills unit in the Division of Student Success is currently leading an evaluation of the process for 202130. For further information or to provide feedback contact Joyce Voerman, Coordinator Academic Progress Programs: jvoerman@csu.edu.au
Policy resources
● Academic integrity – a quick guide
● Early assessment tasks – a quick guide
● Group assessment work – a quick guide
Subject outline related resources
● Subject outline quick guide – condensed
● Subject outline quick guide – a cheat sheet
● Subject outline quick guide – a full guide
Subject Delivery Guide
Please note in case you were unaware the Subject Delivery Guide is a list of recommended tasks that will guide you in the preparation, delivery, and organisation of assessment in your subject for 202230. The tasks recommended dates provide a general guideline of when you may consider completing work to prepare for 202230. Additional items have been added to this session to support you through the preparation and teaching of the session.
The Office of Planning and Analytics has updated the Academic Integrity Dashboard has been updated with a new look and feel as well as additional filters. You can now toggle (top right) between overall AIS “Subject” completion and completion by “Session”
Additional filters include:
● Course Name
● (Student) Commencing Status (Commencing or Not Commencing)
● HDR status (non-HDR or HDR student)
● (Student) Active in current sessions (True or False)
● Student Status (Graduated/Completed or Active)
Please jump in and have a play with this new dashboard. We are sure you will find this a useful tool in monitoring the student academic integrity completions.
The new year allows you to plan for some goal setting. If you plan on preparing for seeking reward and recognition for excellent teaching you may wish to consider 3 programs:
○ Charles Sturt Executive Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching (CS Deans):
– Introduced for the first time in 2021.
– This is an internal award, open to all teaching
academics across the Faculties.
○ Australian Awards for University Teaching (AAUT):
– These national awards recognise quality teaching and
programs, as individuals or teams.
○ Advance Higher Education Fellowships (AHE):
– An internationally recognised fellowship that focuses on
teaching and leadership in teaching.
– Applications are submitted online for review by panels
in the UK.
DLT are in the process of creating “Learning and Teaching Hub” that will enhance our support of the academic staff:
○ Improved structure
○ Easy navigation
○ User and task-oriented focus to content
The new hub which will replace the DLT Website and Phase 1 will go live early 2022. Thank you to all of you that have contributed to identifying the structure and content to be included in the site. If you have any ideas, feedback or questions on this, please email dltadmin@csu.edu.au
Don’t forget to enter your SOTL activity for 2021. 77 have so far for BJBS – so thank you to those that have. Please note the below which may prove helpful.
CRO – You may have entered something in CRO/PURE but it may not be showing as a completed scholarly activity. You may have entered their data in the incorrect field, or not completed a reflection. The scholarly activity completed is triggered by the combination of both artefact and reflection. Either way the CRO verification team will check the data and contact the staff member, usually within a couple of days to alert them to the mistake. The CRO team can be contacted via cro@csu.edu.au
Where to enter data – Numerous people have been enquiring where to enter their artefact and reflection. The CRO Library Guide steps through the process & includes a couple of videos – Scholarly Activities – CRO: Adding Research Outputs, Impact, Engagement and Scholarly Activities – Library Guides at Charles Sturt University (csu.edu.au) the Faculty Librarian teams can also help. I will add a message to What’s News for the first two weeks after the shutdown with some guidance for those returning after the break.
Qualifications – Some staff have noticed that their highest qualifications are incorrect. Original qualifications obtained from other tertiary education institutions need to be sighted in person by the staff members supervisor; a People and Culture representative or a Justice of the Peace for sighting and certifying. Documents can also be certified at any Australia Post Office which may be more accessible at the current time. These should then be forwarded onto dpc@csu.edu.au Qualifications received from Charles Sturt can be checked within the systems by the team at DPC – dpc@csu.edu.au
Professional development – For the full list please visit the professional learning hub @ https://prolearning.csu.domains/recordings/