Assessment, communication and mentorship

Assessment, communication and mentorship includes three concurrent sessions as part of Teaching and Learning Week, 2023. Attendees must register to attend each event. 

• Digital dashboards for assessment • Hybrid (Room: 11A-110, ModWest building | Zoom Link: link to be provided) • 9–10am 
• Internship insights: mentors and mentees experiences • Hybrid (Room: 11A-111, ModWest building | Zoom Link: link to be provided) • 9–10am 
• Teaching students to communicate: A participatory workshop • Hybrid Event (01-W426, Forgan Smith Building (livestream link to be provided)) • 9–10am

Digital dashboards for assessment

Register

Join us for a seminar featuring four disciplinary case studies followed by open discussions on innovative uses of digital assessment data and dashboards in education.

• Hybrid (Room: 11A-110, ModWest building | Zoom Link: link to be provided) 
• 9–10am 

Session participants will consider how digital dashboards can:

• enable students to monitor their own learning, identify areas for improvement, and set realistic goals and actions in response to feedback information
• facilitate identification of students at risk, enable early intervention and coaching of students
• optimise longitudinal feedback processes and support a whole of program assessment strategy
• challenge different ways of thinking about assessment and feedback processes.

The 4 case studies are:

1. enhancing digital dashboard design through connection (co-design) (ITaLI, Medicine & Veterinary Science)
2. feedback to trigger engagement and self-evaluation during placements (Veterinary Science program). A real-time dashboard that enables a dynamic overview of how students engage during placements as they develop their competencies. Discussion will include the findings from a pilot study where the MyProgress platform is used to promote a shift to learning-orientated assessment where students self-evaluate before receiving daily feedback from supervisors to efficiently guide their learning during the placement experience
3. leveraging dashboards to identify student engagement during WIL (Medicine & ITaLI data analytics). In the clinical years of the medical program, students participate in healthcare processes whilst learning, so capturing student development during placements is important. Challenges have emerged in considering how information from novel large digital data sets can support students to make the most of learning opportunities, while also meeting the needs of staff to identify students who may be struggling to perform in such unpredictable learning environments. In this presentation, we will outline data analysis work examining student patterns of engagement in WBAs across the year
4. optimising longitudinal feedback processes using dashboards (Medicine): MD Design has adopted a whole of program system of assessment. This is underpinned by student self-monitoring, guided feedback conversations with staff and a whole of cohort progress review Parprocess to identify at-risk students. We will demonstrate how the aggregation of a wide variety of assessment information (qualitative and quantitative) into a dashboard has supported our longitudinal student self-review and feedback processes.

This seminar has application for the wider context of student learning in the WIL setting. It will offer any practice profession an avenue to share their ideas about how to navigate opportunities for utilising digital data sets to facilitate learning.

Presenters:

• Helen Wozniak, Faculty of Medicine
• Justine Gibson , Science Faculty
• Aaron Herndon, Science Faculty
• Alison Ledger, Faculty of Medicine
• Chantal Bailey, Faculty of Medicine
• Shari Bowker, Institute for Teaching and Learning Innovation
• Asela Olupeliyawa , Faculty of Medicine
• Anna Kull, Faculty of Medicine
• Christine Devine, Faculty of Medicine
• Christy Noble, Faculty of Medicine
• Kym Ward , Faculty of Medicine
• Samuel Monk , Faculty of Medicine.

Student Partners:

• Kathryn Bird, year 3 medical student
• Daniel Ochay, year 3 medical student
• Zack Kodiyattu, year 4 medical student
• Zachary Low, year 4 veterinary science student.

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Internship insights: mentors and mentees experiences

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Our showcase will involve an introduction to the COMU3801 Communication Internship course internship and mentoring experience with Course Coordinator Caroline Wilson-Barnao, and the embedded career development resources used in the course with UQ Career Development staff member Aaron Ruutz. One industry mentor and student mentee will discuss their evolving mentoring experience through their internship, how it supported their networking activities and reflections on using the SEAL framework followed by a question and answer conversation with the audience.

• Hybrid (Room: 11A-111, ModWest building | Zoom Link: link to be provided) 
• 9–10am 

Topics covered in the showcase will include:

• the mentoring relationship in communication based careers
• PRIA membership-accreditation and COMU3801 students-industry member relationship
• networking through COMU3801
• learning and reflection in COMU3801.

Session participants will:

• discover the professional learning embedded in the COMU3801 course
• hear the valuable stories from mentors and mentees about their internship experience
• identify the challenges and opportunities found in the mentoring relationship
• examine the professional development undertaken by mentees in the internship activity
• recognise the value that industry networking can provide to students preparing to transition to work
• discuss with participants their learnings moving forward.

Presenters:

• Dr Caroline Wilson-Barnao
• Aaron Ruutz
• industry mentor
• student mentee.

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Teaching students to communicate: A participatory workshop

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This workshop will instruct participants in how to teach students to communicate using high impact, simple activities. 

• Hybrid Event (01-W426, Forgan Smith Building (livestream link to be provided)) • 9–10am

Our facilitators have recently published a book for university educators. It contains a wide variety of practical exercises to teach communication which can easily be implemented in existing courses by academics. In this workshop, participants will experience a sample of these activities. These will include improv theatre, message planning, power openings and note-taking. Bring your enthusiasm and leave your fear of failure at the door.

We conclude with access to the book and a short overview of how to navigate and use it to help students in your courses and programs become influential communicators.

Participants will receive access to the book Teaching Science Students to Communicate: A Practical Guide (Rowland and Kuchel 2023), that contains theory chapters and lesson plans to expand your repertoire for teaching communication. Get your students engaging, writing, distilling, speaking, listening, investigating, storytelling, communicating with intent, genre, joining the conversation, arguing, organising, and working.

Session participants will:

• learn new techniques and approaches to teaching communication 
• attain a better ability to teach students about communication using learnings from the workshop and the book

Presenter

• Associate Professor Louise Kuchel and co-authors.

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