To assist the Academic Board, Academic Standards & Risk (ASR) and the Learning, Teaching & Research (LTR) committees to fulfil their responsibilities, Annual Course Reviews will be prepared by the Dean of Studies in conjunction with the relevant Course Co-ordinator. The internal process of preparing these course reviews will ensure that there is regular monitoring and improvement of all key facets of the College’s course offerings.
This policy sets the requirements for Annual Course Reviews by the Dean of Studies and appraisal by the ASR and LTR committees for the Academic Board.
The policy applies to the Dean of Studies, all Course Co-ordinators, ASR and LTR committees and the Academic Board.
The Dean of Studies will manage the process of preparing a brief course review to the Academic Board.
Annual Course Reviews will be constructed in consultation with the relevant Course Co-ordinators covering the period July of the previous year to June of the current year. They shall be completed by September 30 for submission to the ASR and LTR committees and then the Academic Board. Data is available to Course Co-ordinators to assist with preparing the annual course reviews. Any reference to year in this policy shall be understood to relate to this time frame.
The Annual Course Review will include information on:
- The role of the course within the School, and College plans
- The relationship of the course to other courses within the College
- The success of the course in achieving its aims and objectives
- Student demand for the course
- Student feedback from internal and external reports, and actions arising
- Enrolment, retention, progression and assessment data related to the course
- How the course develops the Graduate attributes of the College
- Staffing and resource issues associated with the course
- Perceived strengths and weaknesses of the course
- Improvements made to the course since the previous course review, and the outcomes of these improvements
- Specific updates to references and readings in units of the course
- Recommended improvements to be made to the course in the following years.
Data sources for the Annual Course Review will include:
- Results from the Quality Improvement Survey Policy, especially the Student Perceptions of Unit Delivery (SPUD) surveys undertaken at the end of each semester, Lecturer/Academic Self Evaluation & Reflection (LASER) reports, and all available QILT data including their response rates
- Student attrition and progression rates
- Applicants, commencements, number of students, EFTSL, completion rates, average completion times
- Demographic statistics including the cohorts of focus for monitoring - first year students and first in family
- Planned improvements/changes for the previous year
Annual Course Reviews will be used as input to cyclic strategic planning and course re-accreditation.
ASR & LTR committees will undertake a process of review considering the following criteria:
- Progress made against plans for improvement specified in the previous years’ reports, including success or failure of actions listed
- Review of appropriateness of actions listed within each improvement plan given:
- current College priorities
- review findings
- performance indicator data
- Recommendations for additional actions to be included in the improvement plans
The Annual Course Review submitted to the Academic Board by the Dean of Studies will identify:
- The strengths and weaknesses of the course identified through the analysis
- A summary of progress against the planned improvements specified within the previous course review
- Plans for improvement based on current report findings.