This practice report explores the development and impact of two podcasts that we have developed and hosted. Drawing on our experiences as academics working closely together, one non-Indigenous (Barney) and the other Ngugi/Wakka Wakka (Bunda), we discuss the reasons for choosing the podcast medium, the development of the podcasts and their emerging…

Higher education insiders trumpet the use of results for improvement as the most important part of the assessment cycle. Yet, at the same time, we acknowledge the rarity of improvement, especially at a program level. What are some reasons the most important phase of assessment occurs so infrequently? To seek answers, we investigated the "Use…

This article discusses the tension between quality assurance and quality enhancement in engineering education at a programme level. It acknowledges that accreditation has evolved for many years, but does not agilely support innovation or implement changes in educational programmes. Existing quality assurance systems, institutional collaboration…

The Higher Education Academy (HEA) is a UK-wide organisation that works with higher education institutions and 24 discipline-based Subject Centres to improve the student learning experience. This paper outlines the work of one of its initiatives, the HEA ESD Project. While a small part of the Academy's overall work, the Project is attracting…

An old saying about learning that has been passed down from generation to generation in Vietnam states, "The success of learning is determined by intelligence but the passing of an examination is determined by luck." Whether this idea is simply to comfort those who fail or not, it sheds light on the Vietnamese psyche on learning as well…

This document reports on some student impact results of the Thirteen College Curriculum Program (TCCP). The TCCP is a major effort in intervention and reform in the higher education of black Americans generated in predominantly black colleges. The goals were to reduce attrition rates by improving the quality of instruction at freshman and…

A project at Bucknell University is described that was designed to: evaluate faculty teaching, conduct faculty seminars and workshops, disseminate sources of information to faculty, provide funds for the support of instructional improvement projects, develop a means of relating the quality of teaching and scholarship to a system of financial and…

The establishment of the BSW as the beginning professional degree is seen as precipitating structural changes in social work education that could provide for the establishment of an accelerated two-year MSW. A case is made for a two-year MSW, and strategy to facilitate its implementation is suggested. (Author/MLW)

There remains a lack of published empirical data on the substantive outcomes of higher learning and the establishment of quality processes for determining them. Studies that do exist are nationally focused with available rankings of institutions reflecting neither the quality of teaching and learning nor the diversity of institutions. This article…

The effectiveness of instructional development evaluation programs is assessed. It is suggested that although it is a basic tenet in instructional development that teaching improvement is closely linked to effective evaluation, it is ironical that most instructional development programs have themselves been evaluated only superficially, if at all.…

Part-time vocational engineering curricula aim to transform experienced higher technicians into engineering managers. This is done by making use of previous experience in working positions and adding training in new situations. Job training is combined with academic training through courses and activities at an academic institution. Describes ways…

Identifies challenges facing graduate library education and recommends ways to keep library programs from closing, including better defining the profession of librarianship and avoiding isolation by engaging in high-profile, universitywide relationships with other academic departments. Unique characteristics of librarians and librarianship are…

A study concerning the role the Detroit Institute of Technology (DIT) should assume in preparing for the future is discussed. DIT commissioned the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to conduct the study, which involved analysis of demographic data, interviews, and a review of courses of other institutions serving the area. Within one year DIT…

The possibility that direct participation by faculty in projects to revise curricula and create new instructional media would also generate a more systematic way of thinking about teaching was studied through administration of a questionnaire to faculty at Illinois State University who had received an instructional development program grant. Of…