School-Based Partnerships

The Teaching Development Unit offers a distributed model of teaching development support. We believe that in order to support institutional teaching and learning initiatives and improvements, the unit needs to work in partnership with academic staff. The distributed nature of UWS campuses and staff means therefore that a distributed model for teaching development is more effective than a fully centralised approach.

Good Practice Guides
with College of Business and Law / 2010

Dr Fernanda Duarte, School of Management, was seconded part-time to the Teaching Development Unit in 2010. Dr Duarte coordinated the publication of two Good Practice Guides: No 3: Developing Teacher Presence in the Classroom (opens in a new window)[PDF, 317KB] and No 4: Engaging First Year Students in Large Tutorials (opens in a new window)[PDF, 449KB]. These guides provide focus points for new academics and sessional staff to review their teaching strategies and to engage with strategies employed by experienced staff.

Dr Duarte also conducted a small research study investigating the concept of teaching effectiveness. She interviewed experienced teaching staff from the College of Business and Law, several of whom have had their teaching recognised through institutional and national teaching awards. Her results will be made available to new staff to help them understand effective teaching practice and learner engagement.

E-Teaching Capabilities and Assessment Practice
with UWS College / 2010

TDU supported the development of a College-wide vUWS template for academic programs. UWS College sites show improved uniformity with the Basic Standards for E-Learning Sites. TDU provided a criteria and standards based assessment workshop for teaching staff.

Learning and Teaching Seminar Series
with School of Marketing / 2010

Ongoing work with the School of Marketing involve a series of workshops designed to support School staff in developing their capacity for high quality teaching. There is a focus on re-energising teaching, learning and assessment, and extending good practice throughout the School. Sessions were available to staff from across the College of Business and Law.

Enhancing E-Learning @ SBHS
with School of Biomedical and Health Sciences / 2010

This project uses various strategies to provide awareness and further develop skills to improve the quality of online environments. There are general information sessions and hands-on workshop for small program groups and one to one individual consultations. There is also a focus on improving the quality of sites through the implementation of the Basic Standards for E-Learning Sites.