Maintaining Quality within Institutions

Participation in weekly discussion boards and webinars, online exams and surveys and final exam.
These subjects are offered online only and do not require attendance on campus.

120 hours.

You must have taken the following subject prior to enrolling or you must take the subject concurrently.

None

None

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills and Assessment Requirements of this entry.

The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the HDisability Liaison Unit websiteH: Hhttp://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/H

First half year 2014

Maintaining Quality within Institutions focuses on how people can undertake define, measure, monitor and improve quality and quality assurance processes and procedures.

The first unit of the subject provides an introduction to the contexts and approaches of internal quality monitoring, addressing at a range of cultural, methodological and practical considerations.

The second unit explores how institutions can plan quality strategies and operations, and different methods for assessing and evaluating quality.

Forms of evaluation, review and monitoring are considered in the third unit, which concludes with a discussion of options for managing quality improvement. In synch with the quality cycle, the final unit links back to the start of the cycle –understanding and analysing the external positioning of internal QA. This unit takes stock of what has been achieved, and looks at opportunities for benchmarking against other institutions and standards.

Second half year 2014

Maintaining Quality within Institutions focuses on how people undertake, define, measure, monitor and improve quality and quality assurance processes and procedures within tertiary education. Tertiary education institutions are under mounting pressure to demonstrate their quality as a measure of social and financial accountability to students, the public and the government.

This subject will enable students to understand the contexts and approaches of internal quality monitoring, addressing and exploring a range of theoretical, cultural, methodological and practical considerations. It contains four modules of study:

• Module 1: Introduction to quality assurance: Context, theory and approach

This module introduces the context, theory and approaches of internal quality monitoring taking into account the social, political economic and technological changes that are driving the quality agenda in higher education institution.

• Module 2: The Quality Cycle: Planning and Acting

This module explores how institutions can plan quality strategies and operations. It introduces the concepts of planning pyramid and quality cycle and how these can be adapted to their institutional context.

• Module 3: The Quality Cycle: Evaluating and Improving

This module considers the forms of evaluation, review and monitoring and concludes with a discussion of options for managing quality improvement.

• Module 4: External environment: Opportunities and challenges

In synch with the quality cycle, the final module links back to the start of the cycle—understanding and analysing the external positioning of internal quality assurance. This module provides an understanding of the external quality assurance audit process, and looks at opportunities for benchmarking against other institutions and standards. It also discusses some of the issues and challenges relating to quality assurance faced by institutions.

First half year 2014

To enable participants to describe the major factors that affect institutional quality assurance; to describe the notion of a planning pyramid with long-term vision, medium-term strategic plans and shorter- term operational plan; to discuss how improvement can be made through evaluation in terms of review and monitoring within the institution; to identify the difference between information comparison and benchmarking including choosing institutions or sub-areas for information comparison and for benchmarking; and to describe the external quality agency audit process.

Second half year 2014

Upon completion of this subject, students should be able to:

• discuss theoretical concepts of quality and quality assurance;

• discuss the social, political, economic and technological changes that are driving the quality agenda in tertiary education;

• assess, appraise and apply quality assurance concepts and strategies to their everyday work; and

• discuss some of the issues and challenges relating to quality assurance.

First half year 2014

• Active participation in weekly discussion board and virtual teams (6 x 250 word postings);

• Compulsory webinar attendance;

• One essay (2500 words) due after the end of the semester. This is a pass/fail subject. Participants receive feedback for each task, and must pass all tasks.

There are two hurdle requirements:

• Weekly discussion board postings, postings are required in at least three of the four weeks with prior notification if a particular week is going to be problematic.

• Webinar attendance, attendance is required in a minimum two of the three webinars.

Second half year 2014

Assessment for online delivery

• Active participation in the discussion boards for all four modules (i.e. 1 x 400 word posting as well as 1 x 100 word response to a post by others in each of the four modules, adding up to 500 words per module) (2000 words).

• Compulsory webinar attendance for a minimum of three of the four webinars

• One essay (3000 words) due on the final day of the exam period.

This is a pass/fail subject. Participants receive feedback for each task, and must pass all tasks.

Assessment for intensive subject delivery

There are two assessment tasks:

• Four small group discussion and presentation tasks (5 x 500 word equivalent assessment tasks) (= 2000 words) due during residential school.

• A 3000 word final individual essay due at end of semester.

This is a pass/fail subject. Participants receive feedback for each task, and must pass all tasks.

Selected readings and notes to be provided prior to commencement

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

On successful completion of this subject participants will appreciate the challenges of meeting internal and external QA priorities, and be able to apply this knowledge to specific situations.