griffith course design standards · griffith course design standards griffith university has...

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GRIFFITH COURSE DESIGN STANDARDS

Griffith University has developed an evidence-informed Learning and Teaching Framework designed to facilitate the learning and success of our students

and graduates and underpin the ongoing transformation of our learning and teaching practice. The framework provides the basis for a series of course

design standards to inform the choice, design and alignment of learning outcomes, learning activities and assessment tasks, as well as our digital and

physical learning environment. Both our framework and design standards have been developed through a review of the scholarly literature, benchmarking

against national standards and consultation with the University community. We will use these standards to support staff in the process of reviewing and

refreshing existing courses and developing and designing new courses. Importantly, our Griffith Course Design Standards will ensure that our students

experience a level of consistency and quality, benchmarked with national standards, across the University. The development and implementation of course

design standards will be iterative and will be continuously reviewed to respond to strategic priorities or emerging affordances and technologies (e.g., course

and learning analytics, online assessment, immersive learning).

What is the Griffith Learning and Teaching Framework? A learning environment that equips students with the dispositions and capabilities to succeed and thrive (learning to succeed) needs to be intentional and systematic. A university educators’ work is increasingly complex and multidimensional and we want all Griffith educators to feel capable and confident to enact the roles and capabilities required to optimally support the learning and success of our students. While we assume that all our educators are disciplinary or subject-matter experts, we also know that the increasing focus on active and engaging pedagogies and digital technologies requires university educators to bring to bear a wider range of mindsets and capabilities. In particular, the contemporary university educator is focused on ‘student learning’ more than ‘teaching delivery’. We propose three key mindsets as foundational to student success and the effective implementation of the Griffith framework as a whole:

1. Educators as Designers and Leaders of Learning

We enact a flexible range of educator roles to facilitate our students’ learning and success.

2. Program and Lifecycle Mindset

We collaboratively design with a whole-of-program approach to facilitate our student’s learning and success.

3. Evidence-informed Practice

We use scholarly evidence regarding effective learning and teaching in the discipline to inform our program and course design, delivery and review.

We then propose six educational principles to inform a Griffith student-centred and learning-focused approach to education. A higher-education

learning environment that seeks to ‘build a culture of success’ needs to be founded on positive and proactive working relationships between educators

and students (partnership-based learning). This partnership foundation can then be built upon by designs and approaches that drive deep learning

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(engaging and empowering pedagogies) of a research-informed curriculum (scholarly inspired) which is intentionally linked to the wider context (local

and globally connected). Students learn in an environment which is systematically designed and scaffolded to support them to succeed to the best of

their ability (learner enabling design) and their learning is optimised, enriched and extended through fit-for-purpose digital technologies and timely

educational insights and feedback (digitally enabled learning).

The Griffith Learning and Teaching Framework emphasises what our students do to learn and concomitantly, what we as educators do to help them learn.

Our goal is to provide student-centred and learning-focused courses and programs that engage students as active partners in their learning and position us

as educators as designers and leaders of learning. The six evidence-informed principles that underpin our Course Design Standards are:

1. Partnership-Based Learning We work in partnership with our students to create collaborative learning environments.

2. Engaging and Empowering Pedagogies We foster active, authentic and collaborative approaches to learning to build our students’ professional capability and confidence and cultivate their ability to learn effectively in work contexts.

3. Scholarly-Inspired Curriculum We found our curriculum on evidence-informed knowledge and work to inspire our students to be curious about the process of developing new knowledge and applying this to positively impact others.

4. Locally and Globally Connected We infuse our learning environments with the partnerships and perspectives of the wider context of work, culture, society and professional practice so that our students are actively engaging with, and meaningfully contributing to, the world outside of university.

5. Learner-Enabling Design We optimise our learning environments to build our students’ capacity to confidently and capably manage their own learning and enable all of our students to succeed to the best of their ability.

6. Digitally-Enabled Learning We facilitate our students to learn more flexibly and effectively through digitally-rich and integrated learning environments.

What are the Course Design Standards?

Course standards provide student-centred benchmarks (the experience we want to provide for our students) for each learning and teaching principle. These

are elaborated through descriptions of Exemplar Practices (activities that support each standard). Educators have the design discretion as to how standards

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will be appropriately achieved in their disciplinary context. Each of the six learning and teaching principles has been operationalized at two escalating levels

of design affordance:

Foundational (FS) Foundational Standards provide guidance for designing Courses at the base level of each learning and teaching

principle. Foundation Standards are the minimum requirements for all Griffith courses and ensure that our

students experience a level of consistency and quality, benchmarked with national standards, across the

University. All Griffith courses will demonstrate these base standards in ways that are appropriate to the goals of

the course, the disciplinary context and the backgrounds and needs of learners. Courses will also have an online

presence which operationalises the core practice elements for each standard in ways which facilitates students’

engagement and learning. It is expected that all Griffith Courses will evidence practices across all Foundation

Standards.

Enhanced (ES) Enhanced Standards provide guidance for designing Courses at the next level of each learning and teaching

principle. Enhanced Standards indicate ways by which Courses can strengthen or deepen student engagement

and learning. Courses which require higher levels of engagement, support and learning to enable student success

(e.g., first year, large size, fully online) should consider both systematically and authentically incorporating all

Foundation Standards (and associated practices) and also incorporating aspects of the Enhanced Standards that

are particularly relevant to the success of students in their context. Particular consideration should be given to

how students may benefit from enhanced digital environments and more clearly scaffolded learning experiences.

It is expected that a significant number of Griffith Courses will evidence a strategic mix of Foundation and

Enhanced Standards.

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1. PARTNERSHIP-BASED LEARNING RELATIONSHIPS

We work in partnership with our students to create collaborative learning environments.

Level Standard: The intended student experience

Exemplar Practices: How one might achieve the standard?

FS 1.1 Students experience a learning environment that supports them to effectively communicate, collaborate and learn from educators and each other.

Educator engages students by providing a personalized introduction and welcome to the course.

Educator incorporates activities to build an engaging and inclusive learning community. Examples: Clarifies roles and expectations. Co-develops ground rules for productive learning and discussion. Purposefully builds peer connections. Explains course structure, roles and working relationships. Facilitates connection and belonging by sharing background and interests relevant to the course.

Educator uses an appropriate mix of communication tools and channels (e.g. announcements, online consultation, discussion tools, office hours, in-class conversations) to optimize educator-student and student-student communication and collaboration Examples: Peer activities requiring student-student discussions or team-based learning. Assessments that incorporate peer-to-peer feedback. Students work in groups to develop marking criteria for a presentation or assessment task.

FS 1.2 Students understand that the educator continuously improves the course in response to student feedback.

Educator incorporates the feedback of past and current students into the design or delivery of the course. Examples: Educator ensures that the feedback is actioned. Include formative feedback surveys during course. Exploit usage statistics of required and recommended course materials to update reading lists.

Educator describes changes to the course made in response to feedback from previous cohorts, either verbally or through the LMS.

Educator involves students in contributing to the success of the course (e.g., tutorial review conversations, mid-trimester feedback, polls/pulse surveys, feedback blogs).

ES 1.1 Students are actively engaged in providing formative feedback during the course to enable responsive action.

• Educator actively monitors students’ learning and engagement through an appropriate mix of feedback strategies and tools. Examples: Students write one-minute papers. Incorporate in-class response systems/polling. Leverage asynchronous discussion tools. Facilitate impactful conversations during tutorials.

• Educator manages the success of the course by conducting a formal mid-point review and feedback exercise.

• Educator scaffolds students’ success by providing current students with feedback and advice from previous students on ways to be successful in this course. Example: Students conduct an end of trimester feedforward exercise addressing ‘what I wish I had known/advice to future students.

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2. ENGAGING AND EMPOWERING PEDAGOGIES

We foster active, authentic and collaborative approaches to learning to build our students’ professional capability and confidence and cultivate their

ability to learn effectively in work contexts.



FS 2.1 Students experience an intentional and appropriate balance of active, authentic and collaborative approaches to learning and assessment.

Note: Intentional design involves Educators analysing and developing session and course plans collaboratively with their Teaching Teams, integrating appropriate analysis and the application of scaffolded activities to meet Course Learning Outcomes.

Educator implements Active Learning strategies that engage students in the process of learning and reflecting on their learning using context appropriate strategies. Examples: Interactive lectures. Active discussions. Live debates. In-class projects. Scaffolded problem solving. Simulations. Case-based learning. Role playing. Peer teaching. Active review of material.

Educator implements Authentic Learning experiences that involve students in ‘learning in context.’ Examples: Case studies designed to mimic the workplace and professional practice. Reflections on student’s life and/or work experience related to key ideas/construct.

Educator designs Authentic Assessment tasks to provide students with opportunities to develop and practice capability, investigate real world challenges and problems and/or produce professionally relevant artifacts/outputs/performances. Examples: Tasks relating to Work Integrated Learning (WIL)/ Community based projects/placement experiences. Learning tasks to scaffold reflection on learner experience while on placement or WIL. Tasks to be completed while on placement. Tasks enabling student to co-create knowledge and teach peers challenging concepts.

Educator includes Collaborative Learning strategies in the course design to engage students in learning with and from their peers, either face-to-face or through digital tools. Examples: Sharing information. Exchanging viewpoints. Supporting, teaching or learning from peers. Providing and receiving constructive feedback. Collaborating on tasks, project teams, critical exchanges and justification of ideas.

Educator develops students’ capacity to work and learn collaboratively. Examples: Scaffolding group work with guidelines and resources. Practice peer feedback methods.

ES 2.1 Students engage in assessment and feedback that develops their

• Learning activities and assessments are designed to facilitate students’ evaluative judgement

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capacity for self and peer judgement.

and accurate self-appraisal.

• Assessments involve students in structured reflection with regular opportunities to interpret and integrate feedback from multiple sources (e.g., self, peers, clients and educators).

• Educator purposefully develops students’ feedback literacy and capability. Examples: Students are made aware throughout the course about the types of feedback being used, whether cohort-level or individual level. Students are provided information and guidance on how to make use of feedback. Students are made aware of the types, sources and frequency of feedback in the course. Digital technologies are used to facilitate students collecting, giving and receiving peer feedback.

ES 2.2 Students engage in assessment and feedback that emphasizes their capacity for innovative thinking and professional problem solving.

• Learning activities and assessments are designed to build students’ capability to develop responses or solutions to local, national and global problems relevant to their discipline and/or profession.

• Assessments facilitate innovative thinking by engaging students with under-specified tasks and providing opportunities for problem definition, analysis and solving.

• Assessments are designed to facilitate professional capability by requiring genuine or realistic outputs and products (e.g., presentations, arguments, demonstrations, multimedia).

3. SCHOLARLY INSPIRED CURRICULUM

We found our curriculum on evidence-informed knowledge and work to inspire our students to be curious about the process of developing new

knowledge and applying this to positively impact others.



FS3.1 Students are engaged in examining the research evidence and/or professional knowledge that underpins current understanding of their discipline.

Educator engages students with a contemporary research-informed curriculum using student-appropriate and disciplinary-relevant analytical methods. Examples: Critique of a research article. Theory to practice discussions.

Educator fosters student awareness of social issues and the application of academic theory and public debate for the social good.

The Course inspires students by introducing them to the ‘big ideas’, ‘exciting edges’, ‘emerging and creative practices’ and ‘unanswered questions’ in the field.

Educator fosters students’ awareness of the relevance of university scholarship and the roles of

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researchers and public scholars in the community.

Educator fosters student awareness of social issues and the application of academic theory and public debate for social good.

Up-to-date, engaging and relevant course materials (e.g., readings, movies, articles, literature, artwork) are easily accessible online and through the Reading List when required.

Educator connects students with library resources and services that promote information literacy (i.e., the ability to find, evaluate and effectively use information).

FS 3.2 Students learn critical and higher-order thinking practices in an intellectually rigorous and evidence-based environment.

The educator models, explains, applies and actively engages students in activities which strengthen the students’ capacity for critical thinking and ethical judgement.

Assessments transparently and systematically require a range of higher-order capabilities (e.g., explaining, analyzing and synthesizing).

Educator establishes guidelines for constructive critical debate to scaffold students critically examining their own perspectives and learning from differences of opinion.

Educator provides guidelines for academic integrity including proper referencing.

Learning strategies and their implementations are differentiated based on the student life cycle (e.g., first year and fourth year).

ES 1.1 Students develop their disciplinary based research skills and understanding of the research practices of their discipline by engaging with authentic research activities.

• Course provides students opportunities to ‘learn how to conduct research.’ Examples: Specific activities addressing a question or challenge or through problem solving and developing innovative solutions are provided. Students conducting a mini-investigation. Advanced critique of a research article.

• Course provides opportunities for students to develop research artifacts and research skills. Examples: Students construct items for a questionnaire. Students build a test environment.

4. LOCALLY AND GLOBALLY CONNECTED

We infuse our learning environments with the partnerships and perspectives of the wider context of work, culture, society and professional practice so

that our students are actively engaging with, and meaningfully contributing to, the world outside of university.

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FS 4.1 Students experience a course informed by contemporary industry concepts and practices.

Course design and curriculum is informed by industry and professional standards (e.g., professional standards and industry competencies) and input from industry/community partners, industry advisory board, or recent alumni. Note: This design is made explicit to students.

Students are provided with course-relevant career and industry learning resources and opportunities. Examples: Industry speakers or panels. Industry snapshots in course-related material. Virtual or real field trips.

Current events/writings are referenced within class sessions and course materials.

FS 4.2 Students are provided with opportunities to engage with international and global perspectives.

Course design and curriculum intentionally incorporate diverse cultural, international/global and regional/community perspectives. Examples: Diverse examples are provided. Events and ideas are interrogated from differing economic, social or cultural perspectives.

Course leverages digital technologies to provide students with global learning opportunities and access to diverse knowledge networks which reflect international experiences or perspectives/cultures such as First Peoples’ cultural competencies. Examples: Integration of social media to connect with broader communities of inquiry. Video-conferencing to access international expertise. Use of digital resources (e.g., YouTube clips, TED talks).

Opportunities are provided for authentic collaboration with or about culture at global and local levels.

ES 4.1 Students have the opportunity to actively engage with alumni, industry or community partners.

Course incorporates face-to-face or digitally mediated opportunities for students to directly engage with and learn from industry, professionals, community leaders and/or clients. Examples: Access to industry mentors is provided. Informational interviewing is used. Brief field visits are organised. Industry-speakers address the class. Client stories and case studies are shared.

5. LEARNER-ENABLING DESIGN

We optimise our learning environments to build our students’ capacity to confidently and capably manage their own learning and enable all of our

students to succeed to the best of their ability.



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FS 5.1 Students experience a course which clearly aligns learning goals, activities and assessment.

Course Learning Outcomes (CLO), informed by Bloom’s Taxonomy, are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timebound (SMART), attainable, relevant and aligned with Program Outcomes.

Assessments are explicitly aligned to CLOs, graduate attributes and, if appropriate, to relevant professional standards.

Learning activities’ relationships to the CLOs are clearly articulated. Note: The relevance of an activity and its design (what is required) is well articulated.

Educator clearly explains course goals and expected standards of performance as well as communicates guidelines for seeking and finding help. – Examples: Provide a resource (e.g., video, text or presentation) to communicate this information. Educator sends an announcement explaining an assessment and identifies how the learning activities provide the opportunity to acquire the skills/knowledge to successfully complete the assessment.

Course module/topic learning outcomes are explicitly aligned with course learning outcomes.

In the assessment section of a course site, the CLOs are obvious and assessment documents articulate how it relates to the CLO being assessed. Notes: Formative assessments show relevance to topic and alignment with CLO. CLOs are linked to rubric criteria.

FS 5.2 Students are supported through all stages of the assessment lifecycle.

Course incorporates explicit processes for supporting student learning and success through the lifecycle of each assessment (i.e., designing the task, introducing the task and its relevance, helping students understand and apply criteria, just-in-time scaffolding/skill-building, clear and fair submission procedures, timely and actionable feedback).

Educator connects and/or refers students, as needed, to resources and services to support them with assessment difficulties.

Students are provided with clear guidance of assessment policy (e.g., standard extensions, intellectual property and copyright regulations and use of originality tools).

Course incorporates formative or low-stakes assessments to scaffold students’ progressive understanding and mastery of the curriculum. Students’ performance on formative assessments are used to provide forward-oriented feedback to support learning and growth.

Course assessment is integrated and well-spaced with linking feedback/feedforward across the course.

Educator provides guidance on referencing.

Course includes links to resources and opportunities to develop course and assessment-relevant academic, wellbeing and informational literacies (e.g., library workshops, digital resources,

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consultation opportunities).

Assessments includes the application of research-informed disciplinary and professional knowledge.

FS 5.3 Students are provided with materials and resources that adhere to Griffith’s accessibility guidelines.

The principles for Universal Design for Learning (UDL) are employed. Examples: Resources and lectures include are provided multi-modal formats. Effective use of technology.

Clearly explained accessibility mechanisms are in place for students to obtain course materials in alternative formats.

ES 5.1 Students are provided with support and feedback informed by digital data to positively enhance their learning, success and well-being.

• Educator encourages and scaffolds their teaching team’s capability to ethically and effectively use data and evidence to understand and support learners.

• Educator explains to learners the proactive and ethical ways in which data will be used to support their learning and wellbeing within the course (e.g., assessment data and engagement analytics).

• Teaching Team uses the Course Analytics@Griffith dashboards (e.g., tracking student task engagement, access to resources, engagement in discussion forums, etc.) to lead and manage the course.

• Teaching Team uses available and relevant digital data from VLE tools (e.g., MS Teams, PebblePad, Echo 360 ALP) to understand and facilitate different aspects of students’ engagement, collaboration and learning.

• Teaching Team uses relevant data to provide proactive evidence-informed outreach, interventions and nudges in support of student success.

ES 5.2 Students are helped to understand how they are learning and how to improve their learning.

• Course incorporates formative mechanisms and resources which enable individual and/or cohort-level timely and targeted feedback in support of learning. Examples: Using Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) such as: in-class polling, end-of-class ‘muddiest point’, ‘one-minute essays, progressive quizzes with feedback and adaptive release of materials.

• Students are provided regular opportunities for self-reflection on their participation, engagement and approaches to learning within the course. Example: End of learning activity reviews (e.g., How did I contribute? What can I do differently?).

• Course incorporates resources which help students develop their capacity for self-regulation and meta-cognition. Examples: Input on study strategies and planning. Feedback from inventories.

• Students are able to track their learning or progress to proactively manage their success. Examples: Students are supported to use digital data to understand and manage their own engagement and performance on collaborative learning tasks/projects. Learning activities are designed to provide students with data which supports self-regulated learning. Real-time feedback tools to scaffold learning (e.g., formative writing/text analytics) are used.

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6. DIGITALLY-ENABLED LEARNING

We facilitate our students to learn more flexibly and effectively through digitally-rich and integrated learning environments.



FS 6.1 Students are supported to effectively engage with digital resources to facilitate their learning.

Note: These Exemplars Practices are valid in many contexts but not all. Technologies are selected to add value (e.g., engagement, new type of activity, motivation, currency, efficiency) thus avoiding the sense using technology for the “sake of using technology.”

Course design incorporates an informed choice of digital tools and resources to optimize student learning and performance on assessment tasks. Examples: Choice and use of digital tools is explicitly linked to course learning outcomes. Digital tools complement each other to make a coherent learning experience.

Course systematically supports students in gaining skills and confidence in using digital tools to support their learning and future workplace skill development. Examples: Links to relevant self-help resources are provided. Progressive opportunities to use a new technology are designed into the course. Interaction etiquette is explained in writing.

Educator regularly uses digital tools (e.g., video, audio, chat/discussion boards, written announcements) to engage and communicate with students.

The Course site is designed so students can easily navigate the digital learning environment. Example: Consistent site structure is provided and includes Welcome to Course, Learning Activities and Reading List, Assessment and Announcements and links.

The Course site facilitates clear and consistent communication about assessment [e.g., Information relating to all assessment items (when and how they will be assessed, method of submission, return of assignments, notification of marks and feedback, criteria of assessment/marking guide/rubric) are made available to students in the LMS].

Educator monitors the Course site’s Blackboard Performance Dashboard in the first part of the semester to identify students 'at risk' and monitor the overall student experience.

ES 6.1 Students experience a digitally rich learning environment.

Students experience high levels of Educator presence online. Example: Educators and Course Team members intentionally and regularly engage and communicate with students, both one-to-many and one-to-one, using video, audio, digital images, text, just-in-time media uploads, interactive whiteboards, online consultations, oral feedback on assessment and messages.

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Students experience high levels of active technology-mediated learning. Examples: Interactive digital resources. Branching video. Adaptive/self-paced learning experiences. Access to curated Open Educational Resources (OER).

Students experience being an active member of and contributor to a digital learning community. Example: An appropriate mix of formal and informal peer forums and collaborative/social learning formats are implemented to engage students.

Course employs technology to deploy authentic forms of assessment and feedback at scale. Examples: Video-based scenarios. Electronic exams. Video or audio feedback.

Course incorporates 24/7 course-based help.

Students experience deep and immersive learning through virtual, mixed or augmented reality. Examples: Experiential and capability-based assessments undertaken in virtual reality. Practice-based learning enriched through augmented reality. Empathy training through immersive simulation.

griffith course design standards · griffith course design standards griffith university has...

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