student feedback and leadership - Office for Learning and Teaching

Part B: Building Leadership Capacity - BUS: School of Economics, Finance & Marketing ART Report
8.3 Background and Project Focus
What courses were the subject of this project? Give total student numbers
and breakdown how it was taught at the start of the project. Include any
other relevant information about the profile of the students and the context
of delivery.
Within the Business College, all undergraduate students, regardless of the
particular program in which they are enrolled (i.e. Bachelor of Business
(Accounting), Bachelor of Business (Marketing), Bachelor of Business
(Information Systems) etc…) undertake eight Common Core courses
in addition to the courses required to complete their specific degree.
Our project focused on the student experience in the four Common Core
courses delivered by our School, three of which are generally undertaken
in a student’s first year. The courses of interest are MKTG1025 Marketing
Principles, ECON1030 Business Statistics, ECON1010 Macroeconomics 1
and ECON1020 Prices and Markets. This project focused specifically on the
onshore delivery of these courses; however it should be noted that they are
offered in many offshore locations including Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong,
Shanghai and Vietnam.
As mentioned, students who undertake these courses in Melbourne are from
all business disciplines. In addition, there are a number of students enrolled
from programs external to the Business College for which these are either
a required part of their program or are undertaken as an elective. Each of these
courses is delivered to approximately1200-1500 Melbourne-based students
per year. The delivery mode generally includes a two hour lecture of 300-500
students and a two hour demonstration lecture/feedback session of 80-120
devoted to undertaking exercises designed to explore and apply concepts
discussed in the lecture. The exception is Marketing Principles, which is
delivered via a two hour lecture and a one hour tutorial (class sizes are the
same as the other courses). Given the student numbers, the largest lectures
cannot be held in the Business building (building 108) and primarily are held in
the Capitol Theatre and the Casey Plaza Theatre. Each course is managed by
a Course Coordinator, who generally coordinates all locations, and is delivered
by a team of lecturers and tutors. Staff numbers allocated to each course
ranges from 2 – 6 people per semester and includes both full time and
sessional staff.
Given the scope of these courses and their importance to each of the
Business College’s undergraduate offerings, there has been ongoing course
development and trial of a number of initiatives in the past to improve the
student experience including: reviews of course content, the integration
of technology and the introduction of various forms of student support.
The following provides a brief description of each course:
MKTG1025 – Marketing Principles
Marketing Principles is an introductory marketing course aimed at students
commencing the Bachelor of Business (Marketing) or students from other
courses who have not previously studied marketing. MKTG1025 is a core
course for the Bachelor of Business (Marketing). MKTG1025 may be
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