Course enhancement conversations: A holistic and collaborative evaluation approach to quality improvement in higher education

Abstract

This practice article describes the use of collaborative evaluation for institutional improvement leading to continuous learning at a regional university in Australia. The University of Southern Queensland’s Academic Quality Framework (2019–2022) was developed in response to external drivers to improve practices relating to the comprehensive and systematic analysis of academic data. One aspect of the response was to introduce ‘course enhancement conversations’, which were a collaboration between the central Academic Quality Unit and academic staff, including course teams and learning and teaching leaders within schools and faculties. A feature of these conversations was the use of sentinel rather than performance indicators of course (not teaching) quality to prompt the holding of conversations. Conversations were conducted in a spirit of constructive collaboration, where the shared goal was to support course teams to deliver an outstanding student experience. Through adopting a collaborative approach to evaluation, Academic Quality Unit staff were evaluation champions who gradually acculturated academic staff and learning and teaching leaders to evaluative thinking and data-informed decision-making. Issues brought to light during these conversations have informed changes in practice at the university level, including the development of a new evaluation procedure to embed best-practice monitoring and evaluation across all levels of curriculum delivery.

Scoping recent investment in evaluation education in Australian universities

“…Therefore, consideration of how and when to enter a new discipline is a strategic executive decision that requires an evidence-based approach to ensure the endeavour is worthy of the investment (Alderman, 2022, this issue). Also, in keeping with the themes of the special issue, as Forbes et al (2022, this issue) demonstrate, there is significant scope for qualified evaluators to work as internal evaluators within the Australian higher education sector. This article will be the start of a research journey to explore whether evaluation is a viable and meaningful discipline within higher education programs and contributes to earlier work undertaken by May et al (1986), Durrant and Eastmond (1994), and more recently, LaVelle (2019) and LaVelle and Johnson (2022).…”

The Continuous Learning Framework: Applying accountability for widespread organisational change

“…This process was iterative, with several modifications made through stakeholder feedback from academic staff, associate deans and heads of learning, teaching and student success. As described by Forbes et al (2022, this issue), the use of student feedback can cause tensions; therefore, through several iterations of applied practice, it was possible to design and develop the policy artefacts in a way to reduce anxiety and build confidence that the university has adopted best practice.…”

“…After a brief overview of the development of the framework, this article discusses examples of the practical application of the quality element of accountability. The three other articles in this special issue explore the framework’s elements of improvement (Forbes et al, 2022, this issue), performance (Harris & Alderman, 2022, this issue) and investment (Quadrelli et al, 2022, this issue).…”