Two more universities are adopting block teaching
Two more universities will adopt the block teaching model, which can improve student grades and boost satisfaction with learning.
Two more universities have announced plans to introduce block teaching models for undergraduates, adapting a system pioneered in Australia by Victoria University in 2018.
Next year Southern Cross University will introduce teaching in six-week blocks to some undergraduate courses, with students taking two subjects at a time, instead of four at a time over 12 weeks as they do at the moment.
SCU pro vice-chancellor (academic innovation) Erica Wilson said the new system, to be called the Southern Cross Model, would allow students to “pace their study in a more logical way”.
“They often tell us of a crowded curriculum, particularly having to take four separate subjects at one time; assessment and exam time can be very stressful,” she said.
READ MORE: Block teaching: Victoria Uni’s secret sauce | The vice-chancellor who rejects pay rises | Heavy job losses at two more unis | HECS net catches overseas debts |
Professor Wilson said the Southern Cross Model’s block teaching was a response to “student demands for greater flexibility in organising their study loads and competing life priorities”. Students will have the option to complete one or two subjects per block, with two being a full-time load.
A small selection of programs will be available in block mode next year, including the bachelor of business and enterprise, with more being introduced until the university is fully in block-teaching mode by 2023.
At Murdoch University, block teaching will be introduced in 2022 to its fast-tracked, two-year bachelor of commerce degree. From that year, all units in the course will be taught in four-week blocks.
The move to block teaching in the commerce degree is part of a revamp of the Murdoch Business School that is intended to differentiate the school in the competitive market for business education.
Next year former SCU vice-chancellor Adam Shoemaker, under whom the block model was developed at SCU, will become vice-chancellor of Victoria University, where he will inherit a well established block-teaching model.
Minister canes unis over effect of early offers
As year 12 students approach their final exams, one education minister is worried that early university offers have encouraged them to slack off.
Uni debacle was always going to get ugly
Our two oldest universities are both loudly left-wing campuses – they have activist staff and student groups where the party-line is settler-colonist theory – in which Israel as is has no right to exist.