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USC focuses on the journey of learning
If our lessons come from the journey, not the destination, then the University of the Sunshine Coast is definitely on the right track with the theme for its 2011 Learning and Teaching Week (19-23 September).
This important forum for USC staff, held annually to advance learning and teaching strategies and practices, is this year entitled “The Learning Journey”.
It will examine the pathways people take to start university, the retention of students, support services, enhancing the university experience, creating positive learning spaces, developing quality teaching practices, and preparing students for the transition to the workplace.
USC’s Senior Academic Advisor Tilly Hinton said the Learning and Teaching Week program was packed with interesting, informative and stimulating sessions built around the theme of “The Learning Journey”.
“It will have four strands – Arrivals, Traveller’s Tales, Places and Spaces and Departures – which align the conference with current higher education policy agendas,” she said.
“The theme also lends itself well to where USC is at, as there is significant change happening in the higher education sector, and universities are all negotiating where we fit in. This week will make that a lot clearer.”
Ms Hinton said the forum would feature four top-class keynote speakers:
- Teaching quality expert Professor Marnie Hughes-Warrington of Monash University;
- Learning styles expert and USC’s 2011 Nambour Rotary Club Teaching Fellow Neil Fleming;
- Suzi Hewlett, Learning and Teaching Excellence Branch Manager within the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations; and
- Assessment expert Professor Emeritus Royce Sadler of the University of Queensland’s Teaching and Educational Development Institute.
“There will be 16 staff presentations and 10 posters that have been peer reviewed, and a range of other session including student panels, including those who have studied overseas as part of USC’s Global Opportunities (GO) Program,” Ms Hinton said.
“The Learning and Teaching Week will be a celebration for USC as well, with our most recent Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) citation winners, award winners and grant recipients talking about their successes.”
As part of the week-long forum, the University will celebrate a further extension to its Wall of Fame for academic staff in the USC Library from 5-6.30pm on Tuesday 20 September.
USC Vice-Chancellor Professor Greg Hill said the University’s strong emphasis on the professional development of its teachers was paying dividends for USC students and their future employers.
He said it had also boosted USC’s reputation, with academics this year collecting a variety of prestigious national awards and citations, and the University standing out as the only public institution in Queensland to earn five stars for teaching quality in the 2012 Good Universities Guide.
— Terry Walsh