MONASH UNIVERSITY ACADEMIC BOARD Meeting No. 6/2015 held on 14 October 2015 CHAIR’S REPORT TO COUNCIL RECOMMENDATIONS BY ACADEMIC BOARD There are no matters arising from this meeting of the Academic Board requiring adoption or approval by Council. MATTERS CONSIDERED BY ACADEMIC BOARD Specific matters dealt with by Academic Board Meeting 6/2015 are highlighted below for Council to note, as necessary. 1. Undergraduate Coursework Course Portfolio At its meeting 8/2013, Council noted Academic Board’s endorsement, and approved implementation of the Monash Course Architecture (CA). The Board has subsequently reported to Council on milestones achieved during transitioning of the portfolio of coursework courses to CA compliance. Council may recall that an important objective of the CA Project was to enable a whole of university approach to, and oversight of, the coursework portfolio. At its Meeting 6/2015, Academic Board received the complete portfolio of undergraduate courses proposed for offer in 2017, the first time the CA compliant portfolio (including programs considered during 2015) of courses had been presented in its entirety. The Board also considered and commended the 2017 Course Portfolio Timeline, an 18 month schematic of the institutional relationships (academic and non‐academic) on which timely delivery of the portfolio is dependent, and which highlights the necessity for forward planning and whole of university approach to the course development process. To facilitate continued oversight of the coursework portfolio, the Provost will, on an annual basis, present to Academic Board (generally at its October meeting) the portfolio of undergraduate courses to be marketed in the next calendar year for delivery the year after. Similarly, the Vice Provost (Graduate Education) will present the graduate portfolio to the November Board meeting each year. 2. Course Reaccreditation and Reviews Formal course review and re‐accreditation are critical vehicles for assuring the continued quality of programs offered by Monash and are key requirements of the Government’s Provider Course Accreditation Standards. The Coursework Courses and Units Accreditation Policy (revised at the beginning of 2015) requires all award courses to be reviewed at least every 7 years and within two years prior to application (to Academic Board) for reaccreditation. However, current courses have only been accredited for five years. Normally, they would be submitted to Academic Board for reaccreditation within that period but given the level of internal revision undertaken as part of the Course Architecture project, faculties were given the opportunity to request an extension of the accreditation period for their courses up to a maximum of seven years since last reviewed and/or accredited by Monash. Pursuant to faculties’ requests, the Board therefore approved revised accreditation end dates for courses in the undergraduate and graduate coursework portfolios. 1
The extended accreditation period will enable faculties to introduce a number of efficiencies into the review process, including the opportunity to cluster courses into meaningful groups for review, align reviews with external accreditation requirements and spread the workload of undertaking reviews more evenly over seven year cycles. The Board also noted the planned schedule of course reviews, observing that further detailed work on revising the review procedures was ongoing. 3. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) Council has previously received reports on development of Monash MOOCs for delivery through the FutureLearn platform. The Vice‐Provost (Learning and Teaching) presented to Academic Board the annual status report on the Monash MOOC Project, in which he considered the FutureLearn platform context and analysed the performance of and learnings emerging from each of the first five offerings – Creative Coding, The Science of Medicines, Water for Liveable and Resilient Cities, World War 1: A History in 100 Stories and Mindfulness for Wellbeing and Peak Performance. As at the date of this report, Monash has run/is running five courses (a number have run more than once), with 125,000 learners having registered across the nine offerings to date. The Board noted the rapid growth of the FutureLearn platform, its quality reputation and the enhancements expected to improve the education experience, and was particularly pleased to note the outstanding participant feedback on their experience of the Monash MOOCs and the opportunities evolving from each course. In addition to the benefits to learners of participation in MOOCs, the Board observed that a range of benefits accrued also to Monash, including brand enhancement, development of innovative learning and teaching approaches, development of resources available to support faculties in their education activities, forging of links with other cultural institutions and development of research opportunities. Nevertheless, the Board also noted that development of MOOCs is expensive and that going forward it will be necessary that they become self‐sustaining. Other uses for MOOCs are being explored e.g. learners transitioning from a MOOC (as a pathway) into award courses at the University (especially a pathway into fee‐paying postgraduate courses) and through development of for‐fee online courses aimed at the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) market. There may be other possible opportunities for MOOCs including assisting in academic preparation for university, showcasing Monash research and as a community service. Professor Ben Canny Chair, Academic Board 2