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Learning Centre Director Dr. Sue Starfield has received an ALTC Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning in 2008.
The Australian Learning and Teaching Council (formerly the Carrick Institute) recognised Dr. Sue Starfield for the development of a research-led innovative curriculum to support postgraduate research students' writing with significant impact on the field of postgraduate writing.
In the 2007 round of awards The Carrick Institute recognised The Learning Centre and the Faculty of Engineering's partnership approach to embed academic literacy within disciplinary contexts.
The citation is for 'An outstanding contribution to developing student academic literacy in the Faculty of Engineering UNSW: A partnership approach between Faculty and the Learning Centre'.
The Carrick Citations are granted to people who have made a significant contribution to the quality of student learning in a specific area of responsibility over a sustained period.
Pam Mort of The Learning Centre and colleagues from the Faculty of Engineering (Chris Daly, Robin Ford, Paul Hagan and Iain Skinner) have, over the last eight years, developed a sustained and productive relationship for improving all students' academic literacy, encompassing the full range of study from undergraduate coursework to postgraduate research. This contrasts with the more common approach in which university learning support services at universities are usually viewed as separate from professional study and being suitable only for remedial assistance of students who need to improve their English language.
This collaboration has resulted in a variety of original instructional and resource-based approaches that contextualise the writing process and academic literacy expectations within core courses and programs in a number of engineering schools.
The resources include:
We strive to develop instructional materials (study guides, online resources, course materials and lecture slides) that are strongly visual, demonstrate concepts with clarity, and thus are easily assessable. We believe the design and content of our instructional material is innovative because the presentation and tone encourages students to take a positive approach to developing their academic literacy skills. Our resources and teaching approach confirm that learning about writing reports and academic conventions is not remedial. Students are encouraged to see that the writing tasks they prepare at university provide an opportunity to hone their communication skills and prepare them for communicating as professional engineers or future academics.
Our approach includes activities that encourage students to develop independent learning strategies and engage actively in the course materials; for example, reflection on the task at hand, use of checklists and rubrics, practice in strategies that improve reading, task management, writing, and peer reviews.
Our materials utilise a number of features that increase the accessibility of the information such as:
"I feel more confident. I can say why in my report."
"I learned the structure of reports, what it should be like, what should I put and where"
"Extremely helpful and a useful reference when writing… [i.e. the mining guide] is clearly written and easy to read and understand"
"I'm not a MINE1010 student yet, but I have read most of the Report Writing Guide. Firstly, this is the only information I have received from any subject on report writing. I have found it very useful because it outlines the style, audience and structure of a report with examples and checklists. Considering the importance of report writing at university, this is going to be a valuable resource."
Our Writing Assistant Program is an inaugural recipient of Carrick Institute Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning 2006 as part of the 2006 Australian Awards for University Teaching.