A whole of institution approach to supporting learning, teaching and assessment

This paper overviews a whole of institution approach recently implemented at James Cook University (JCU) to supporting staff and students in terms of identified learning, teaching and assessment priorities. It reports on collaborations established between academic and professional staff, across targeted Bachelor courses, with a view to enhancing course coherence, blended learning and assessment practices, and within-curriculum development of English language and numeracy skills, as well as student and professional identity. These collaborations see academic staff work with academic developers, educational designers, learning advisors and careers staff to design curriculum and assessment strategies that are responsive to the needs of highly diverse student cohorts. Assessment redesign is informed by student achievement, retention, progression and satisfaction data, as well as curriculum mapping data pertaining to coverage of course learning outcomes and range of assessment types across year levels and whole of course. The whole of institution approach has been recently detailed in two key documents: the JCU Learning and Teaching Blueprint 2014-2016 and the Access, Participation and Success Plan, 2015-2017. Within these strategic documents and key policies, such as the Learning, Teaching and Assessment Policy and the English Language and Numeracy Policy, the promotion of diagnostic and formative assessment, especially in the first year, and expansion of more authentic and technology-enabled assessment practices are identified as key strategies to support student engagement, learning and success. This paper will draw upon cases of assessment redesign, external evaluator reports and self-reflections to review some of the tools, processes and outcomes of the 2014 and 2015 collaborations.