Getting specific about generic attributes

Abstract

It is now widely accepted that the quality of learning, and employability of university graduates can be greatly enhanced when course design is structured to include a framework of more general qualities, skills and understandings (generic attributes) agreed to by the university community. Most universities, including the University of Tasmania (UTAS), now define desirable generic attributes (GAs) and provide resources to support their integration into the curriculum. This project, supported by a University teaching development grant, guides the development of discipline-specific GA descriptions that are clearly relevant and applicable to the design of course units within the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology at UTAS. This is seen as a starting point for encouraging academics to explicitly integrate GAs into their teaching and assessment strategies. A cross-disciplinary community of representatives is built up to define discipline-specific GAs and formulate practical goals and aspirations for their integration into courses. Dialogue within this community is fostered through workshops and the provision of comparative data for the sharing of ideas. Discipline representatives take on leadership roles within their departments, ensuring that the wider community of staff are kept informed of, and are able to contribute to, the progress of the project. Data on prior integration of GAs into teaching is gathered from the coordinators of course units and compared to overall course aspirations in order to clarify directions and strategies for discipline communities to drive their own change.