Campus Review Volume 27. Issue 07 | July 17 | Seite 21

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Within a theme, each of the cases will go through what the
rationale was for the innovation; in what context an activity
was happening; a description of the activity that would allow
another person or an institution to pick up that innovation and
run with it in their own context; think about the impact that
innovation has made on student learning, institutional practice
and community engagement; and then some extra resources
and links that may help to further inform people about what’s
happening.
There are so many wonderful examples, but each of the cases
follows that basic format. So if we think about some of the ones
that we’ve already been profiling quite widely, we have an example
like the Horizon Award, which is an employability achievem ent
record that has been rolled out across Flinders University that
allows students to get recognition for both their curricula and
co-curricular experiences that will help to make them more
employable and future-ready graduates. So we’re talking about
leadership opportunity, professional development, as well as
the kinds of professional learning, networking, global mobility,
cultural awareness and sensitivity modules that students might
participate in across the course of their degree. So that’s one that’s
a university-wide program.
Another one that’s much more focused around a particular
degree program would be one where, say, our Brazilian field trip
that happens at Charles Darwin University; that case study details
how students within a particular unit of study are learning more
about science in the context of the Amazon rainforest. How cool
is that? But really thinking about it in terms of where does this fit
in with sustainability, where does this fit in terms of environmental
understanding. So it really helps to unpack a little bit further how
that particular subject is helping students to get not only an
international perspective but also an understanding about how
their discipline is being applied in an international context.
scale existing practice. When I was scoping each of the activities
that were happening at the institutions, I found many that perhaps
wouldn’t need a criteria in terms of the level of scalability or fit with
a common set of strategic priorities that would overlap for six of
the institutions, but that was still innovative and exciting and really
great examples of activities that the six unis could potentially share
with each other, or that parts of their institutions may wish to share.
Really it was an opportunity for us to capture all of the really cool
things that I found that were happening across our six unis.
How long did the project take to reach completion?
Hopefully, it will never reach completion. Because what we’re
hoping is that the case study collection will be a living resource,
and that over time we’ll keep contributing innovative practices to
the collection as we uncover them or as new practices emerge
at the institutions. But really, the process of collecting the case
studies themselves began in December last year. We launched the
collection live in April. We’ve got a hundred cases in the collection
now, and we’ve sent invitations to about 160 contributors.
Is the collection accessible for academics and students from any
university, or do you have to be going to an IRU to access it?
No, it’s freely available, which I think is a great thing. I was really
passionate about making this resource available for the whole
sector. This was just the first part – to scope out what was
happening at the IRU institutions and collect that up as a first point
of call. But really, the case study collection is publicly available
through our website.
We would welcome contributions from other members of the
broader higher education sector. So it’s by no means an exclusive
club. It’s just at this point, for this first phase of activity, we’ve
really been focused around uncovering innovative practice that’s
happening within the six IRU members.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Just that, to encourage people to get out and explore the case
study collection, and if they have any ideas or potential case studies
that they’d like to profile, get in touch with us and engage with the
project itself and also with the IRU vice-chancellor fellowship.
Where can people go to access the case study collection?
Can you give an example of a case study?
The case studies have been collected around key themes.
There are 20 key themes where we would basically package
up a collection of innovative case studies into one theme.
The case study collection can be found through the IRU website by
tracking through Action, then Student Success, and you’ll find the
link to it on that page. Otherwise, the URL is http://app.iru.edu.au/
national-innovation-case-study-collection/. ■
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