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‘Post-it Wall’: Graduate Attributes implementation ideas

This ‘Post-it wall’ contains some of the excellent ideas shared by participants at the two National GAP symposia and gathered during interviews, for how universities and individuals might more effectively achieve graduate attributes.

These ‘post-its’ are not detailed accounts of practice. Primarily because ‘detailed practice’ is rarely transferrable, whereas ‘ideas’ are.

Reading the wall

The wall is a bit like a wall of post-its in your office - you can browse the ideas by simply scrolling through them. Alternatively you can use the ‘search’ function in Internet Explorer to look for particular words or phrases on these pages.

Several scenarios were used to trigger ideas for institutional strategies, ideally drawing on other ALTC projects. The proposed solutions are included below.

The ideas and scenarios are available for anybody to use as one way of triggering discussion and debate about how to achieve graduate attributes in their institution.

Graduate Attributes implementation ideas

  • Develop a protocol or set of guidelines for staff to implement effective team work strategies. These should include; Reasons for using team work and how to integrate it into units; explanation of how to assist students; explanation of how to justly assess individual contribution, with an element of peer assessment
  • Offer a program of four courses that vertically align development sequence in a three-year Law degree. Each attribute forms a stream of skill sets, and there are nested developments within streams
  • Curriculum Development Group to integrate the teaching and learning that happens over each semester-eg four courses are connected through the learning aims that are that semester’s focus
  • Systematic involvement of stakeholders through feedback and surveys of employers, graduates, staff and students, in employability skills development.
  • Employ (and pay) student rovers to run mentoring programs for students, have representation and management from library, technical and learning support.
  • Focus on retention and identify trigger points when students may falter or disengage, eg if a student does not attend follow up support activities, a fellow student tutor will phone and offer support and referral to other staff and programs.
  • Offer a for-credit unit in Business, developed and delivered collaboratively with Careers Service that includes students leading teaching of classes and focuses on GAs and entrepreneurship.
  • Engage Careers Office to change GA terminology used within university to match that of employers to increase students’ awareness of GAs and their ability to articulate them.
  • Host an extra-curricular competition where student teams research key aspects of GAs, drawing on relevant literature and interviews and interaction with employers/industry, and are assessed by an expert panel.
  • Curriculum renewal process should be focussed on promotion and development, for example showcasing interactive teaching and providing a learning resource.
  • Establish a career development website that supports the students and staff using e-Portfolios to enable students to reflect in a way that makes them desirable to employers.
  • Establish a university wide centre that develops programs and tools for HDR students’ capability development, for example, in research methods or technical skills.
  • Foster extracurricular development of GAs in three different categories; extracurricular learning and training, professional development, and community contribution; which may lead to an additional award upon graduation.
  • Use software that allows teachers to give students feedback on their attainment of learning outcomes, ensuring teachers articulate and students understand learning outcomes.
  • Establish a voluntary program to meet employment needs of international students that adopts an integrated approach to language, culture, job search and work placement.
  • Appoint program leaders which will (amongst other things) think about GAs at program level and increase discipline specificity.
  • Consult with stakeholders to develop an online repository of Teaching and Learning activities that achieve particular GAs.
  • Provide alumni mentoring electronically, which is less resource intensive and offers the possibility of joint activities between university curricula, careers and alumni, to benefit students.
  • Raise the profile of graduate attributes. See The National GAP (Graduate Attribute Project - Scoping); Distributive leadership for learning and teaching: developing the faculty scholar model
  • Engage all relevant stakeholders, including senior management to establish a shared understanding of Graduate Attributes and outcomes which incorporate professional and university requirements (provision for a ten year culture change)
  • Consult and review with stakeholders to achieve agreement regarding graduate attributes outcomes
  • Engage all university staff and other stakeholders in building reward systems. See Research Skill Development and Assessment in the Curriculum; Australian eportfolio project (scoping); Career Development Learning (CDL): Maximising the contribution of Work Integrated Learning (WIL) to the student experience; Learning and Teaching for Interprofessional Practice, Australia (L-TIPP, Aus); Enhancing Communication and Life Skills in Veterinary Students
    • Establish integrated infrastructure and support systems- for example, mapping, designated leadership roles, reporting outcomes, assessment policy Identify and resource the implementation of appropriate strategies, for example, peer and leadership mentoring plans
  • Implement revised graduate attributes
    • Ensure investment is visible and transparent to all stakeholders
    • Keep the curriculum debate at an appropriate level, ie whole of degree
    • Keep transparent and in focus through assessment. See Embedding the Development of Intercultural Competence in Business Higher Education; Facilitating Staff and Student Engagement with Graduate Attribute Development, Assessment and Standards in Business Faculties
    • Whilst maintaining holistic approach, start somewhere with a pilot project. This can be used to inform the evaluation and review of the initiative. See Nature and roles of Arts degrees in contemporary society: BA scoping project; Learning and teaching in the discipline of law: Achieving and sustaining excellence in a changed and changing environment
    • Select a discipline that has had a graduate attributes project in your university See Developing interprofessional learning and practice capabilities within the Australian health workforce: Building capacity within the higher education sector
  • Evaluate and review initiative
    • Evaluate and progressively develop quality indicators that represent authentic evidence of success at achieving graduate attributes
    • Market the success and effectiveness of pilot internally, and use this to nurture Stage 1 activities in other projects
    • Review, recognise, resource and reward initiatives linked to the development of graduate attributes.
  • Recognise Career Development Learning and the overarching principle of student identity formation. See Career Development Learning (CDL): Maximising the contribution of work integrated learning (WIL) to the student experience; Nature and role of Arts degrees in contemporary society: BA scoping project.
  • Ensure curriculum is built around Graduate Attributes and broadens learning experience and subject content. See Facilitating Staff and Student Engagement with Graduate Attribute Development, Assessment and Standards in Business Faculties
  • Identify learning activities that facilitate transferability, and ensuring that learning processes are supported by e-portfolios. See Australian ePortfolio Project (Scoping)
  • Focus Assessment around Graduate Attributes using tasks that ensure individual student engagement and experiential learning. See Facilitating Staff and Student Engagement with Graduate Attribute Development, Assessment and Standards in Business Faculties; (Career Development Learning (CDL): Maximising the contribution of work integrated learning (WIL) to the student experience
  • Utilise career mentoring to ensure stakeholders are engaged in developing program relevance and are aware of the philosophy of teaching. See Career Development Learning (CDL): Maximising the contribution of work integrated learning (WIL) to the student experience; Developing interprofessional learning and practice capabilities within the Australian health workforce: Building capacity within the higher education sector; Nature and roles of Arts degrees in contemporary society: BA scoping project
  • Achieve ‘buy in’ through providing resources that support engagement with, and enhancement of, assessment practice. See Facilitating Staff and Student Engagement with Graduate Attribute Development, Assessment and Standards in Business Faculties; The National GAP (Graduate Attribute Project – Scoping)
  • Create a policy environment focussed on assurance of graduate attribute learning outcomes. See The National GAP (Graduate Attribute Project – Scoping); Facilitating Staff and Student Engagement with Graduate Attribute Development, Assessment and Standards in Business Faculties; Learning and teaching in the discipline of law: Achieving and sustaining excellence in a changed and changing world
  • Identify assessment practices that focus on graduate attribute development. See Facilitating Staff and Student Engagement with Graduate Attribute Development, Assessment and Standards in Business Faculties
  • Generate acceptance of the ineffectiveness of teacher focussed strategies, and promote student focussed strategies. See Career Development Learning (CDL): Maximising the contribution of Work Integrated Learning (WIL) to the student experience
  • Recognise that telling people what actions to take without addressing their conceptions and motivations does not work. See Career Development Learning (CDL): Maximising the contribution of Work Integrated Learning (WIL) to the student experience
  • Allow for ongoing support and resources required by staff to maintain initial levels of engagement throughout the process.
  • To support the initiative, conduct a literature review and gather evidence about the quality of student learning outcomes. See Career Development Learning (CDL): Maximising the contribution of Work Integrated Learning (WIL) to the student experience; Facilitating Staff and Student Engagement with Graduate Attribute Development, Assessment and Standards in Business Faculties
  • Adopt a cross-disciplinary approach to research and implementation stages.
  • Develop a shared understanding amongst stakeholders and source expertise as needed for each stage of the project. See Nature and roles of Arts degrees in contemporary society: BA scoping project; Mapping the Future of Occupational Therapy (OT) in the 21st Century
  • Incorporate systems for support, professional development, recognition and reward into the university’s existing structures. See Facilitating Staff and Student Engagement with Graduate Attribute Development, Assessment and Standards in Business Faculties