Many postgraduate students need to fit their studies around full-time work and family commitments, which means that courses need to be designed with this in mind.

Back to Designing and delivering postgraduate units and courses

The level of flexibility needed will depend on the particular needs of your cohort.

Explore the following examples of units in which the designers have addressed the need for flexibility:

Time

Are all your students enrolled on-campus full-time? Or are some off-campus or part-time? How can you adjust delivery times to maximise accessibility?

Strategies:

  • Facilitating synchronous sessions outside of standard 9am–5pm work hours
  • Scheduling online sessions at realistic times for students located in different time zones.
  • Wherever possible, aim to record these synchronous sessions so that students who are unable to attend can catch up in their own time. Most online meeting tools have a recording feature.

Location

Are students from remote locations, interstate or overseas?  How can you make learning accessible to them?

Strategies:

  • Combining online study with face-to-face intensives (e.g. blended learning)
  • Allowing students to participate in face-to-face sessions remotely (where possible)
  • Designing assessments so that students can participate in group work remotely

Learning material access and assessments

Postgraduates and adult learners appreciate respect for their autonomy, self-regulation and professional competency.

Strategies:

  • Allowing for topic choice within authentic work-based projects (to allow students to link their learning to their  professional contexts)
  • Avoiding weekly back-to-back due dates for tasks, as these can make it harder for postgraduates to schedule with competing priorities. (Note also ACU assessment policy suggests units should be limited to a maximum of three assessment items.)
  • Making all assessments and content accessible at the beginning of the semester; avoid having content hidden (unless there is a sound pedagogical reason to do so). This allows postgraduates to plan their semester around competing priorities and also meets their need for autonomy.
Page last updated on 28/02/2020
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