Keeping score: How L&T at Macquarie is kicking goals

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Professor Dominique Parrish, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Teaching), is keen for all staff to know about the achievements in the recently published 2021 Learning and Teaching Year in Review, but for those of us short on time she has shared her top takeaways.

More than 4500 job applications processed by the Student Employment Service, more than 3000 students enrolled in the Global Leadership Program and 1820 students attended academic skills development workshops.

These are just some of the achievements of the teams in the L&T portfolio in 2021. Since joining the University in October 2018, Professor Parrish has sought to implement activities that support positive outcomes and promote a quality learning experience for our students.

Professor Parrish says that an important factor in advancing learning and teaching is to take the time to reflect; celebrate wins and identify where progress and enhancement can be forged to support our students.

“I think sometimes when we are so caught up in getting things done, we forget about all of our impressive achievements. The 2021 Learning and Teaching Year in Review enables those who were engaged in the work, those who supported and those who were not involved to appreciate the enormous amount of work that was undertaken and delivered,” says Professor Parrish.

“It is a summary of the strategic activities undertaken by the Office of PVC (L&T) as well as an acknowledgement of major successes from 2021.”

Professor Parrish says the impetus for producing the document was to celebrate and share the learning and teaching highlights and achievements that were accomplished despite many challenges and hurdles.

But it’s not just the efforts of the Office of PVC (L&T) teams that have resulted in the highlights and achievements outlined in the 2021 Learning and Teaching Year in Review. Professor Parrish points out that it is the strength of Faculty engagement and meaningful consultation with students that have been key to the attainment of these highlights and achievements in learning and teaching throughout 2021 and beyond.

Professor Parrish says her highlight for the year is definitely the conception and building of the MyLearn resource (see introduction video below).

“At the beginning of 2021, I met with the Learning Analytics team, in my portfolio and I described a resource that I wanted us to build for students,” says Professor Parrish.

“This small team of four ran with the idea, engaged students in consultation to iteratively conceptualise and build the resource and the result was the MyLearn resource, launched in March 2022. In its first four weeks of operation, more than 7500 students had accessed MyLearn with a total of 128,000 hits across the tool accessing information from more than 950 unique units.

Professor Parrish concedes that last year was an extremely challenging year but the lesson learned was that the team can navigate, adapt to, and overcome challenges.

“I feel last year we learnt how to work together in a very different way, we grew to appreciate the value of strong working relationships and that the centre of our work commitment are our students.”


Top Three Takeaways for L&T in 2021

dominique_nov2020-copy_small_200pxProfessor Parrish is keen for everyone to appreciate the wins and learnings celebrated from 2021, but understands that for many readers, time is an issue. The team at This Week asked her to share her top three takeaways she would love all staff at Macquarie to know about learning and teaching at Macquarie in 2022:

  1. The MQ Way, which is an articulation of Macquarie’s commitment and aspirations for students learning is soon to be launched. This important Framework will guide the design and delivery of learning and teaching. It has been collaboratively conceptualised by senior leaders from all of the faculties and once released the teams in the Office PVC (L&T) will be available to assist staff in their implementation of the MQ Way.
  2. As we move towards a new normal, the quality blending of online and face to face learning has never been so important. Over the past two years the Office of PVC (L&T) teams delivering learning enhancement, innovation and staff development have created a raft of resources to support and progress teaching in a blended environment. A good starting place for those interested in enhancing their approach to blended learning and teaching is our Learning and Teaching Blog – TECHE. Searches can be conducted on tags such as Blended Learning.
  3. The appetite for micro-credentials is increasing. Study-interested workers, retirees looking to engage in learning for interest and those looking to return to work following a career break are some of the potential participants micro-credentials are attracting in droves. Macquarie has been mobilising for this and is establishing infrastructure and other support to design and deliver micro-credentials.

Download your copy of the 2021 Learning and Teaching Year in Review

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