Gamechanging education 2

D.W. NicollDirector of Entrepreneurship, Student placement and IndusityLimkokwing Lesotho

Co-evolving TLA with industry

Every planet, country, university, faculty, programme, each module we

teach, each lecturer, student, does not exist in a vacuum

Every programme, every module, every student sits within a constellation of

social systems—the faculty, the university, the discipline, the academic community, industries, the community

at large—that should also influence what is taught, when it is taught, and

how it is taught.

Community

how a particular program sits within others withinthe faculty,

We should all become acquainted with:

how each faculty relates (beyond cross teaching into multi disciplinary work),

We should all become acquainted with:

how our institution complements and situates amongst all others at the disciplinary level (i.e. what’s the qualitative difference, if any, between a degree in computing from NUL and ourselves, what about Univ of the Free state?),

We should all become acquainted with:

how this discipline sits within local and regional industry, which industries are growing, and; how do these industries relate to serving the community?

We should all become acquainted with:

What do we know about other programmes which are doing the same as we are locally and regionally? What do we know about the other programmes that are being taught here at LUCT?

What do I know of the local industry which relates to the programme I teach upon, if there are none, how could this programme possibly fit in, what would it take for it to fit in?

What do I know of regional industries which relate to the programme I teach upon, who are the main players, how have they made their name, what does it take to join them? How many people do they hire a year?

What are the obvious and glaring needs of the local and regional communities, and how is industry or government, or NGOs not addressing these? How could our students address these?

Every student comes to us with expectations, expectations of how they will be taught, what they will be taught, how they will learn subjects – most of this will be based upon their formal schooling experience.

If they were ‘spoon-fed’ facts – then they will likely expect the same from us. If they learned to cheat on exams then why should they do anything different here?

Learning comprises formal and informal elements, taught and self-directed elements, abstract theoretical and practice elements, learning about something, learning to do something, learning to be something, learning to transform, assimilate, integrate and incorporate

Every student is situated within a constellation of institutional and

knowledge organising systems—the lecturer, other students doing the same module, the module within the streams making up the overall programmes of a faculty—that will also influence what is learned, when it is learned, and how it

is learned.

Faculty

How does a particular student relate to the module contents and style of teaching? How has the lecturer interpreted and chosen to

pass on the knowledge? How does this particular module sit with others that the

lecturer teaches, and others that the student is learning, and the others it is related to in

the overall stream? Do the streams of modules properly combine and assimilate to produce a strong overall programme? How

does the programme relate with others within the faculty?

What they must know and be able to do, and what they should know and be able to do, and what they

could know and be able to do

We must identify at programme level:

1. The jobs, tasks, roles and responsibilities our students must

be able to perform and take on when they join their respective

industries

Then we can consider what they should and could be able to do,

independently and/or as part of a team

We must identify at stream level:1. The skills, knowledge, and

examples our students must be exposed to in order to meet the

learning objectives of the programme

We must identify at module level:1. The skills, knowledge, and

examples our students must be exposed to in order to meet the

learning objectives of the module

How do, or rather how can we learn?

From books and publications including the internet, from direct experience, from

practice, from the community, from research, from each other, co-learning with other students, with lecturers, with industry

advisors.

What do each of these offer as a learning resource over the others?

How do, or rather how can we learn?

From books and publications including the internet, from direct experience, from

practice, from the community, from research, from each other, co-learning with other students, with lecturers, with industry

advisors.

What do each of these offer as a learning resource over the others?

How do, or rather how can we learn?

from the community,

How do, or rather how can we learn?

from practice,

How do, or rather how can we learn?

From TV?

from direct experience,

How do, or rather how can we learn?

From books and publications including the

internet,

From books, our education and the literature, from case studies,

formulas, from examples of best practice, from theories, from

blueprints, forms and formats, we learn generic and/or universal

aspects of our chosen fields

From research and our experience of industry, our communities and wider life (our hopes, fears and

aspirations) we learn specific and/or individual aspects of our

chosen fields

Through play, tinkering, mucking about, trial and

error, through asking questions, testing

boundaries, breaking rules, through criticising, ripping

apart, intelligently plagiarising, mashing, breaking, assimilating,

incorporating, synthesising, interrogating and

investigating... We learn... 2 + 2 = 5

To create a holistic learning environment and experience for

our students, valuable and relevant experience, we must blend – local

realities, limitations, and conditions, with global examples of

best practice and applications

Also local industry here has something to learn from the

application of global best practice and the proper exploitation and

packaging of local produce, facilities and opportunities (i.e. tourism

ideas and ‘Brand Lesotho’)

Our duty as leaders is to how best to lead our students to what they need to know and to what they must be able to

do in order to be employable in the fields in which they have shown interest

– locally, regionally and the world…

Limkokwing prides itself as a global, industry-led university.

More than this differentiating us against traditional models of the university, how can we make this

work for us here?

Through teaching staff and students interacting with the immediate

external world of industry and the wider community, making this a

valuable, unique and integral part of the TLA process (different from

marketing)

Guest speakers, site visits, industrial placements, competitions,

conference presentations, displays, shows, books, consultancies, TV

programmes, debates, projects etc. – nothing new, many universities

and colleges have done this for ages

We want to use ideas from customer relationship management

to keep track of interactions with the object of making them more meaningful and relevant for both the industrial partner and for the learning processes of the student.

There are plenty of examples of bad learning experiences for both

industry and student experiences of placements.

i.e. students who are supposed to be getting experience in HR management, spending the

semester filing or even sweeping the floors

i.e. companies who wished to engage students to complete a task only to have it poorly finished, due to lack of appropriate skill level, or unfinished due to lack of time and

proper project management by academic staff and students

To let this happen, especially in Lesotho due to its size, will sour our

relation to the private and public sectors so our interactions must be

managed

Also, we must maximise each interaction so as to derive the

largest amount of benefit from it to our teaching and learning effort

At, the same time we must ensure we deliver on time and at the quality expected by industry

This places an additional role on the lecturer and their PRLs – as

arbitrators of what the students can and cannot do as projects – in some cases lecturers may have to make-

up for the shortcomings of students

In any case the shortcomings will feature in the marking schemes of

assignments and projects

We must identify and be intimately acquainted with:

1. The skills, knowledge and experience our students must possess when they join their

respective industries

Learning objective of programme

Students with sufficient skills, knowledge and experience to compete on the local, regional and international skills market

Learning objective of the streams

Packaging the right blend of skills, knowledge and experience to meet the learning objectives of the programme

Learning objective of the module

Providing the student with the necessary skills, knowledge and experiences to meet the learning objectives and to apply global, generic, ‘best-practice’ solutions to local problems

What’s the difference between being produce able to

satisfactorily produce for LTV, SABC, and AL Jezzera?

Area Local Regional Global Question

Broadcast LTV SABC CNN, BBC, AL JEZERRA

What is the difference – in technology? In production methods, in content, in look and feel?

Best case examples – locally, regionally, globally [why are they best?]

Foremost companies, locally, regionally, globally – in terms of size, cash turnover, skills [awards, reputations, innovative work]

Business Street vendors Pick and Pay Woolworths

Design and print Local publications

Traditional arts and crafts

Regional publications

Regional identities

Global publications

Global interests in diversity

Architecture Vernacular, traditional

Brick, Euro-methods

Blueprint, generic houses,

Fashion Local dress Regional dress Global trends

Tourism Geography, wildlife, plants, traditions, crafts and cultural artifacts

ICT Local needs Regional Needs Global needs

Particular Generic

Particular local knowledgeis gained through local research

done by staff and students – every staff member should strive to become an expert on the local application of the knowledge

domain they teach

I.E. someone teaching Javascript language should seek out – via contact with

local companies – examples of Javascript’s

application and development

In addition they should know the value of it regionally and globally, and against other languages, those existent and emerging

They should, for sure, identify local, regional and global practioners, be aware of the most successful companies at each level, and have an idea of what it takes to join such companies

That is our bench mark to whether we are doing a good job or not…

This same company can provide a guest speaker – they should talk about the business in Lesotho - opportunities, threats etc.They should also provide some insight to the organisation of work, site visit?

To begin with ask yourself the question:

Could I supplant my assignments with industry projects?

Could I include industry relevant problems in my exams?

Leadership Is a … Mutual

Discovery Process.

TeachingIndustry led workshop sessions

Skills levels achieved

AssessmentsIndustry reps having input to marking

Assessments benchmarked

against industry standards

Industry inputs Academic Calendar

Begin semester 1

Industry inputs project for assignment 1, site visits, guest speakers etc.Industry adjudicates assessments with academics

End semester 1

Possible placements, end of semester shows

Begin semester 2

Industry inputs project for assignment 1, , site visits, guest speakers etc.Industry adjudicates assessments with academics

End Semester 2

Possible placements, , end of semester shows

Assignments as projects

Industry Representat

ive

Student

Academic Staff

Academic staff choose and liaise with industry advisor

Industry advisor and academics have input into project given to students

Academic staff mentor students to meet deadline and quality required by industry

Assignments as projects

Industry Representat

ive

Academic Staff

Student

Student submits project assignment to both academic staff and industry advisor

Industry advisor and academics provide feedback and/or marking in concordance with proficiency and any shortcomings on professional standards/usability

Net result is that students and academic staff get exposed to industry expectations of proficiency and industry gets a potentially useful product/design/plan or idea