The University of Western Australia - Faculty of Life and Physical Sciences

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE FACULTY TEACHING AND LEARNING COMMITTEE

held in Room 1.58, First Floor, Physics Building on Tuesday 9 August 2011 Present:

Associate Professor Peter Whipp (Chair) Ms Abbe Rorrison (Faculty Manager)

Representatives from Schools: Dr Jan Meyer (Anatomy and Human Biology) Winthrop Professor Ian McArthur (Physics) Ms Hayley Hutchinson (Psychology) Mr Martin Anderson (Sport Science, Exercise and Health)

Other Representatives: Associate Professor Nancy Longnecker (Science Communication) Associate Professor Des Hill (Mathematics and Statistics) Ms Merrilee Albatis (Science Library) Mr David Enright (Program Manager/Offshore Programs) Associate Professor Thomas Martin (Faculty Offshore Programs Director) Visitors: Winthrop Professor Bruce Elliott (Head of School, Sport Science, Exercise and Health Apologies Dr Jane Hallos (Student Advisor) Winthrop Professor Alice Vrielink (Biomedical, Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences) Ms Marjan Heibloem (Representative from FNAS) Mr Tiago Tomaz (Postgraduate Student Representative) Mr Linden Blair (Undergraduate Student Representative) Mrs Kath Williams (Executive Officer)

1. MINUTES

RESOLVED – 7

that the minutes of the meeting of Teaching and Learning Committee held on Tuesday, 12 July be confirmed.

2. DECLARATIONS OF POTENTIAL FOR CONFLICT OR PERCEIVED CONFLICTS

OF INTEREST The representative from Physics declared potential conflict in relation to item 7 on the agenda and requested that this item be moved down the agenda in order that he could leave the meeting prior to this item being discussed.

3. ITEMS/BUSINESS IN PROGRESS FOR NOTING SINCE PREVIOUS MEETING Item/Business in Progress Progress Update Status Principles of assessment and amendment of Marks

Policies to be created To be revisited

17

4. CHAIRS REPORT The Chair advised members of the following:

Faculty awards for excellence in teaching and learning: online version

At the meeting members were provided with the final draft version (Attachment A) of the proposed awards procedure for excellence in teaching and learning. The Chair acknowledged Matthew Kohler, Jenny Gamble, Jan Meyer and Vance Locke for their contribution to this process. Members were asked to provide feedback on this report directly to the Chair, by 16 August 2011 and were informed that the mechanism for submission would be online. It was envisaged that this would be available for semester 2, 2011. Members were informed that this was an ongoing issue for the central teaching and learning committee and although Education had proposed a two page procedure this had been found to be insufficient.

Review of assessment practices 2011

At the meeting the Chair tabled a document (Attachment B) relating to the review of assessment practices 2011- with a view to NC2012 offerings. This report was now with the Head of School in Sport Science, Exercise and Health who would discuss the recommendations with the Chair. The Chair opened up the following 2 options for discussion:

Option 1: Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning to undertake another (one) school review – Sem II, 2011

Option 2: All schools undertake a review – Sem II, 2011

Members agreed that there was a need for diversity and a need to be accountable across each major. The representative from Science Communication expressed their interest in participating in a review however, requested that this be incorporated into a school review. The Chair suggested that someone who had already undertaken the review may be able to provide assistance. Although members were concerned about workload issues, they agreed to go with Option 2.

SCORES e-learning practices 2011

Members were provided with an update of the SCORES e-learning project, which would be accessible by both staff and students (Attachment C).

Colleague review of teaching

At the meeting the Chair foreshadowed a report (Attachment D) “Colleague review of Teaching (CRT). Members were asked to consider a mandatory review process similar to that undertaken at Flinders University and were asked to provide feedback to this issue at the next Faculty Teaching and Learning Committee.

Evaluation of new technologies

In 2010 the elearning and Learning Spaces Standing Committee requested the development of a framework for discussions regarding the adoption of new technologies at UWA at both faculty and central levels. The attached paper (Attachment E) was a proposal for such a framework.

18

LMS (Moodle) & LCS (Echo) implementation projects 2011-2012

Members agreed that a presentation on LMS (Moodle) would be useful and the Chair agreed to arrange a presentation for the next meeting of the committee.

Research environments better for teaching & learning

Members had been provided with a paper in the agenda for this item. Researchers had found that although students were unhappy with the quality of the teaching in research-rich environments, this was more than compensated for by the overall experience.

5. LARGE CLASS SIZES

A report detailing the issues surrounding large class sizes, which was produced by the School of Anatomy and Human Biology in consultation with Physiology, had been provided to members in the supplementary agenda. The report identified the impact of large class sizes, broken down into three main fields;

Quality of learning tasks o As class sizes increase time for meaningful experiences declines; o In order to adapt to large class sizes would content need to be

reduced; o Personal knowledge of students by staff and capacity to encourage

individual interests and assumption of individual responsibility for lifelong learning challenged in large classes;

o Placing quotas on units would create planning issues for students and administrative issues for the Faculty.

Staffing issues o The complexity of managing large classes o The need for repeat sessions for large classes as they exceed the

capacity of teaching venues; Resource management

o Space; o Access to expensive resources; o Numbers of sets of basic infrastructure equipment; o Consumables-lab bench o Load issues with resources if digitised replacement e.g. bandwidth

and disk space; o Provision for repair, maintenance and cleaning of infrastructure with

reduced downtime and increased level of use. Members were asked to consider how they would deal with similar issues in their respective schools.

19

20

6. MATHEMATICS SKILLS

At the last meeting of the Committee the issue of mathematics requirements was discussed at some length.

In summary, options discussed by Teaching and Learning Committee members included:

Option: Schools specify maths as a pre-requisite for certain majors, subject to approval. Executive Officer’s note: In this case it should be noted that the Maths prerequisites would have to be completed whether or not the major is the degree-specific major.

Option: Recommend increasing the prerequisite for entry into the BSc from MAT2C/2D to MAT3A/3B as the minimum requirement. For equity purposes pathways could be provided for students who don’t have access to MAT3A/3B at their secondary school.

The Chair welcomed the Head of School (HOS); Sport Science, Exercise and Health to the meeting. The HOS wished to advise members of this issue from the school’s perspective. He was concerned on the adverse affect that having to undertake additional mathematics units as well as complementary units would have on accreditation, which had taken ten years to get. In addition should the prerequisite for entry be raised to MAT3A/3B he was concerned that this would have a negative impact on student numbers for both SSEH and ANHB. However, one member commented that within a few years the prestige of coming to UWA would encourage students to take MAT3A/3B. Furthermore could the Biomechanics unit be taught without students having that level of mathematics? The HOS agreed that mathematics was important and although it would be problematic for the school they could cope with the prerequisite entry being raised so long as students were not required to do an additional mathematics units as well as broadening units. One member asked whether a broadening unit for mathematics could be offered in the Bachelor of Arts called “Language other than English- mathematical symbols”.

RESOLVED – 8

That the prerequisite for entry into the BSc should be raised to MAT3A/3B and that the issue of a broadening unit for mathematics be pursued.

7. SCHOOL OF PHYSICS STRATEGIC FUNDING REQUEST

This item was foreshadowed at the last meeting of the committee. A member commented that Physics do an exceptional job beyond the scope of Physics and was not marketing Physics per say. Members requested clarification on the budget. ACTIO - Executive Officer to seek clarification.

8. SCHOOL REPORTS

The school of Anatomy and Human Biology had discussed the report on large class sizes and the potential changes in structure.

9. PROPOSAL TO ADDRESS THE ISSUE OF LARGE CLASS SIZES

The Dean had suggested that a potential solution to help with the issue of large class sizes could be that high achieving students were exempted from taking final exams. Members were informed that a study previously undertaken, by Paul McMenamin, with second year students that had unexpected results. Studies in a similar nature were currently being undertaken by Winthrop Professor Caroline Baillie in Engineering. The Chair will seek feedback from these staff and will report at the next meeting.