Learning Guides

The University has introduced Learning Guides to enhance the student experience by making clear to students what they are expected to learn and how they will be assessed.

The Unit Outline and Learning Guides policy is not intended to impose a rigid content template. While Learning Guides are required to cover certain topics, staff are not constrained in how they address these topics. This flexibility accounts for the different learning and assessment requirements of different disciplines, course units and student cohorts.

There are a number of suggested methods listed below, to assist you in developing your Learning Guide. They include:

1. A template based example
2. The Student Learning Unit Toolkit
3. Exemplar Learning Guides from each college created by fellow Academic staff
4. Referring to the UWS Assessment Guide

Template
Michelle Cull, Dean’s Unit, College of Business and Lauretta Luck from the School of Nursing and Midwifery have developed templates to assist staff in the process of developing their Learning Guides. Staff will still need to customise the template to suit their unit and assessment tasks. The major headings meet the requirements of the Unit Outline and Learning Guides policy.

College of Business Learning Guide Template (opens in a new window) (MS Word, 164Kb)

School of Nursing and Midwifery Learning Guide Template (opens in a new window) (MS Word, 451kb)

Preparing students for learning through written assessment: A Toolkit for Learning Guides
This booklet (opens in a new window) (PDF, 3.15MB) demonstrates how Learning Guides can be used to support students in achieving the standards of learning and writing expected in higher education. Examples cover student-friendly methods of explaining learning expectations, the use of annotated models to improve student academic writing, and ways to refer students to academic literacy and/or numeracy resources and workshops. These have been drawn from sample Learning Guides and related authentic teaching resources to guide staff in addressing particular mandatory content areas listed in the Unit Outline and Learning Guides policy.

Learning Guide Exemplars

A Learning Guide exemplar from each College is included below for your referral for all new Learning Guides required for 100 and 400 level units in 2011. These examplars are not the authoritative guide but more a suggested way to implement Learning Guides.

200091 Business to Business Marketing (Spring 2010) (opens in a new window)

101557 The Individual in Society (Spring 2010) (opens in a new window)

400870 Population, Health and Society (Autumn 2010) (opens in a new window) 

When developing a Learning Guide, you may wish to refer to the UWS Assessment Guide (opens in a new window)(PDF, 3.01MB). This Guide was developed by the Teaching Development Unit in consultation with a range of UWS academic staff already using criteria and standards assessment. The Guide, together with other initiatives supporting the implementation of the Assessment policy, will assist staff to review and improve their assessment practices. Information on assessment criteria and standards can be found in the Guide.