Overview

COVID-19 presents unprecedented challenges to the entire higher education sector and maintaining academic quality is perhaps one of the most difficult and complex of these.

Joined by expert guest speakers from Melbourne University, the University of Western Australia, RMIT University and Victoria University, we will explore how Universities have navigated the challenges of COVID from an academic quality perspective and how the lessons learned can be used to continue to drive and improve quality outcomes. 

Program

Welcome - Leah Holt, Senior Advisor, HES

Assuring Quality at RMIT University

Professor Shona Leitch, Associate Deputy Vice Chancellor Education (Quality and Enhancement), RMIT University
Kate Fitzgibbon, Education Compliance and Regulation, RMIT University

Professor Shona Leitch and Kate Fitzgibbon chat to us about the RMIT University response from both a management and quality assurance perspective as over 3,500 courses were moved online in March 2020. Shona and Kate discuss RMIT’s immediate response to ensure set-up for all of 2020whilst keeping actions aligned to the future and the importance of building a strong evidence base to change the way we view and innovate moving forward.

Q&A

MSPACE: The Quality Challenge

Professor Simon Bell, Head of School, Melbourne School of Professional and Continuing Education (MSPACE), University of Melbourne
Associate Professor Tangerine Holt, Academic Director MSPACE, University of Melbourne
Owen Shemansky, General Manager MSPACE, University of Melbourne

Traditionally, universities have welcomed lifelong learners but have typically not built products specifically suited for them. Professor Simon Bell, Associate Professor Tangerine Holt and GM Owen Shemansky chat to us about the MSPACE model, their unique product development approach, and the importance of partnerships in producing high level academic quality outcomes.

Q&A

 Covid-19: Building Block or Stumbling Block for the “VU Way”

Trish McCluskey, Associate Provost, Learning and Teaching (Interim), Victoria University

Trish will outline the journey VU has been on with the revolutionary Block Model of Higher Education. She will share the challenges and opportunities of implementing the final undergraduate year in this Australian first Model during a pandemic and with a looming TEQSA reaccreditation on the cards.  She will also reflect on how she activated a professional learning network (PLN) to ensure a consistent and coherent response to quality challenges and support the transition to digitally supported remote learning. Working across the institution in a hub and spoke model, they provide a retrospective highlighting the importance of engagement and building a community of scholarship and teaching particularly in navigating the COVID-19 landscape.

Q&A

Managing Academic Integrity

Professor David Sadler, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) at the University of Western Australia and Chair of Universities Australia Deputy Vice-Chancellors (Academic) group

Professor Sadler will focus on the challenge of academic integrity for institutions, students and the wider HE sector. He will address reasons why students are tempted to cheat; the prevalent forms of misconduct including the growth of contact cheating providers; the regulatory and legislative environment for students and higher education institutions, as well as perspectives from pedagogic, technological, academic standards, governance and risk perspectives.  Finally, he will consider the issues from a sectoral viewpoint as well as the resources available to institutions and students.

Q&A and closing remarks

Speakers

Professor Shona Leitch, RMIT University

Shona  is the Associate Deputy Vice-Chancellor Education (Quality and Enhancement) at RMIT and Head of the Centre for Academic Quality and Enhancement within the Education portfolio, providing a unique, sector-wide vision for the management and assurance of academic quality. Shona has previously held senior positions in learning and teaching at RMIT and has been responsible for driving significant curriculum transformations. A key focus has been achieving change and transformation through curriculum innovation and digital learning, which has been supported by several OLT grants and publications in assessment and the use of portfolios in business education. In addition, key strategic initiatives have included areas of employability, L&T program and course improvement, professional development and mentoring and support of academic staff. 

Kate Fitzgibbon, RMIT University

Kate is the Assistant Director, Education Regulatory Compliance at RIMT University and leads strategic projects and activities around  independent assurance that the University is meeting it compliance requirements and obligations under our education regulators.  Kate reports to the RMIT Chief Audit and Risk officer and pre-COVID was focusing on RMITs renewal of provider registration projects under both TEQSA and ASQA (both due in the next three years).  Prior to her appointment at RMIT in 2017, Kate worked as an Assistant Director and provider Case Manager at TEQSA, leading provider registration assessments; conducting onshore and offshore provider site visits; and establishing TEQSAs external academic experts register and ESOS review frameworks.

Associate Professor Tangerine Holt, University of Melbourne 

Tangerine is the Academic Program Director (Business and Economics) at the Melbourne School of Professional and Continuing Education (MSPACE) at the University of Melbourne. She has a proven track record in building and expanding education programs in the Middle East in both medical and health professional education, and is passionate about building capacity, skills development, and knowledge translation through strategic partnership programs.

Professor Simon Bell, University of Melbourne 

Simon is Professor of Marketing and Head of School of MSPACE – the Melbourne School of Professional and Continuing Education. He is also a Fellow of the Judge Business School at Cambridge University where he was previously a faculty member. Simon has worked extensively with industry in a research, consulting, and executive education capacity, and also writes and consults on a range of issues including frontline employee performance, customer education and loyalty, and service innovation. His research has focused on the services, healthcare, and retail industries and has been published in leading journals such as the Harvard Business Review and Sloan Management Review. Simon also sits on a number of editorial boards and is a Fellow of the Australian Marketing Institute (AMI).

Owen Shemansky, University of Melbourne

Owen is General Manager at the Melbourne School of Professional and Continuing Education (MSPACE) at The University of Melbourne. Over the last 15 years, Owen has led strategic and operational activities in higher education schools of business, law, science, teaching and continuing education across three Australian Universities, as well as served as Director of Studies for a private language school in Poland. He has successfully developed and led implementation of strategies in several organisations to improve teaching quality and student feedback, adopt user-centric technologies, expand international footprint in Asia and Europe, and improve service delivery. Currently, Owen oversees a team of 100 professionals that collectively deliver and grow the MSPACE portfolio of online and face-to-face professional and continuing education courses.

Trish McCluskey, Victoria University

Trish is Associate Provost, Learning and Teaching (Interim) at Victoria University, where she is responsible for shaping and leading the University's education strategy to provide quality, innovative and flexible tertiary education to any student from any background. Trish also leads the Connected Learning team, a talented group of learning designers who create innovative curriculum resources and support academic staff to develop contemporary learning and teaching practices. In addition, she has responsibility for the design of physical and virtual learning spaces, including the learning management system and other digital and mobile applications. Trish is an award-winning educator and leader and was awarded the ATEM Outstanding Achiever Award in 2019.

Professor David Sadler, University of Western Australia

David is Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) at the University of Western Australia and Chair of Universities Australia Deputy Vice-Chancellors (Academic) group. Previously, he was Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Students and Education) at the University of Tasmania, a post he took up in 2011 after six years at the Higher Education Academy (HEA) in the UK, where he was Director (Networks). David is a former Dean of Social Science and is a UK National Teaching Fellow for his work on crisis simulations. At the HEA, he co-designed and led the JISC/HEA Open Educational Resources program and served on the HEFCE Online Learning Taskforce.