Improving the Learning of Graduate Attributes in the Curriculum: a Case- Study in IT Management

Sixsmith, A. and Litchfield, A.

Government, employers and professional societies want university graduates who are more ready for work. The UTS Work-Ready Project is a curriculum renewal initiative that aims to improve graduates’ professional attributes and employability skills. The Project provides online teaching and learning resources to support the integration of Work-Ready Learning Activities (WRLA) into the existing curriculum. The paper provides an overview of the UTS Work-Ready Project and the incorporation of WRLA’s into three Information Technology (IT) Management subjects which all included a group assessment item. In each subject, students were surveyed to gain feedback regarding how useful they found a team collaborative decision-making WRLA and whether it helped in their group assessment task. When averaged across the three subjects and the five surveys undertaken 85% of students thought the activity was useful, however there were mixed results in relation to whether the WRLA helped in the group assessment task. Undergraduate students reported the WRLA made no difference to the group assessment task, whereas postgraduates indicated the WRLA did help the team produce their group assessment item.

Cite as: Sixsmith, A. and Litchfield, A. (2010). Improving the Learning of Graduate Attributes in the Curriculum: a Case- Study in IT Management. In Proc. Twelfth Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE 2010) Brisbane, Australia. CRPIT, 103. Clear, T. and Hamer, J. Eds., ACS. 155-164

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