HASS case studies

3. Criminology and Sociology majors

Following the HASS seminar, the School of Social Science held a forum to introduce the Graduate Attributes, BA mapping requirements and template to all staff. Convenors were presented with alternative options to either lead mapping work online via collaborative documents; or lead mapping work with Course Coordinators via an in-person planning session, and to consider inviting Faculty Learning Designers to the session. Convenors provided further instructions to course coordinators to support mapping work according to discipline requirements.

Multiple UQ and BA curriculum priorities (including employability, authentic assessment and Indigenising the curriculum) have been streamlined. Staff were encouraged to either simultaneously commence Indigenising curriculum mapping work, or to complete this mapping in a second stage, in 2024. The UQ Indigenising Curriculum Framework was provided.

The School has implemented a collaborative, peer-led review process for Course Profiles. Disciplines undertake the Course Profile peer-review process at intensive in-person sessions (noting this is not feasible for some disciplines which require extensive or remote travel). To support the Course Profile review, an academic review criteria table is used. The table has been updated to align courses to the PLOs (aligned with Graduate Attributes) and Indigenising Curriculum requirements.

Example 1: Sociology major

In Sociology, the Major Convenor asked Course Coordinators to contribute to mapping using a shared document. Examples and additional guidelines were provided to support Coordinators:

provide a brief comment for each of course in the document
if an Electronic Course Profiles (ECPs) previous LOs cover the new LOs, they should be eligible for use; otherwise make a brief comment
if staff are clearly teaching to a new LO but it’s not currently in their ECP – they should make a note to change their course LOs in the next ECP
if staff don’t cover the new LO, just put N/A. It is not a requirement to meet each LO in each course
the Major Convenor chose to prioritise the LO3: ‘Engage productively with diverse communities’. I.e. limit to courses that engage (physically) with diverse communities (example).

See the example of completed mapping work in the Sociology major (UQ Login required).

Example 2: Criminology major

The Criminology team added an additional section, ‘What we do’ and ‘what we don’t do yet’. This enabled discipline level interpretations of the Attributes and BA learning outcomes. Major Convenors noted that the process was useful to identify where courses needed to update assessments and course LOs and where further development is needed in specific curriculum areas (i.e. ‘gaps’).

See the example of completed mapping work in the Criminology major (UQ Login required).

Resources

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