Improving graduate attributes with online teaching resources

A case study in IT management

Abstract

The paper backgrounds the UTS Work-ready Project which aims to improve graduate professional attributes and employability understandings and skills. The Project makes available online teaching and learning resources to support the integration of Work-Ready Learning Activities (WRLA) into the existing curriculum. The WRLA’s are contextualised for each profession’s workspace to maximise relevance for both students and academics. The paper presents a case-study of the integration and evaluation of contextualised WRLA’s to improve teamwork processes into three subjects in the IT Management curriculum. Students were surveyed to obtain feedback on the usefulness of a team collaborative decision-making WRLA and whether it helped in their undertaking of a group assessment task. The survey results were positive when averaged across the three subjects and the five surveys conducted indicate 85% of students thought the activity was useful.

However in relation to whether the WRLA helped in the group assessment task there were mixed results. Undergraduate students reported the WRLA made little difference, whereas post-graduates indicated the WRLA did help the team produce their group assignment. We also present reflections and lessons learnt from the perspective of a Subject Coordinator trying to improve graduate work-readiness within the existing curriculum.