Communities of Practice (CoPs) and Interest Groups at Flinders University are an initiative of the Flinders Teaching Quality Network. They aim to promote the development of good learning and teaching practice across discipline and faculty boundaries.
Flinders CoPs promote collegiality and trust. CoPs are groups of people who, through regular meetings share a common area of interest that increases their individual and collective knowledge. Flinders CoPs
- are voluntarily facilitated by academic staff;
- membership is not limited by disciplinary or staff classification boundaries;
- institutional expectations have not been imposed;
- knowledge creation and outcomes are driven by members.
Four CoPs currently operate.
First Year Coordinators: Managing Diverse Needs of 1st Year Cohorts
Facilitator: Louise Reynolds
This Community of Practice has been established for all staff who work with first year students. Both academic and general staff are welcome to attend. Monthly meetings (each meeting is scheduled for 2 hours) explore and share ideas about how to support the diverse needs of first year students and develop curriculum that encourages them to succeed. Topics of interest are generated by the group at each meeting. A "research" sub-group has also been established to consider topics that we may wish to write journal articles about or consider researching in-depth.
Discussions have covered:
- ways of identifying students at risk
- the Australasian Student Survey of Student Engagement
further discussion planned this year include:
- working with large groups of first year students - a report of two initiatives being trialed by a member of the Community of Practice;
- academic integrity;
- to record or not to record lectures;
- feedback from the National Conference on Student Equity in Higher Education.
The "research" sub-group presented a nuts and bolts paper at the First Year Higher Education Conference titled Formally calling the CoPs for staff working with first year students (PDF 40KB) and intends to write a journal article based on the CoP and the experience of presenting the conference paper.
Please email Louise Reynolds for further information on dates and times of meetings or to register your interest in participating.
Work-Integrated Learning: Implementation
Facilitators: Kathryn Anderson and Darlene Voss
Work-Integrated Learning: Innovation
Facilitator: Verity Kingsmill
Work-Integrated Learning Preparation
Facilitators: Anne Hayes and Damien Mills
The focus of the WIL-Preparation CoP is to consider academic and administrative matters associated with the preparation of WIL students and WIL activities. In 2011 the WIL-Preparation CoP is inviting a guest speaker to each meeting to address a common key issue (identified in 2010) that then becomes the focus for discussions in that meeting.
