Annual Report - University of Namibia

TEACHING AND LEARNING IMPROVEMENT UNITDirector: Dr Erika MaassTEACHING AND LEARNING IMPROVEMENT UNITThe vision of the TLIU is to excelin promoting academic staffdevelopment and training thatprovides opportunities on acontinuous basis for self-enhancement,teaching skills-renewal and enrichedcompetency.The TLIU’s mission is to continuouslystrive for the improvement ofacademic teaching, learning, use ofrelevant educational technology andresearch, the review of academic staffteaching skills and competences, andthe keeping abreast with the latestdevelopments.During the development of the 2009Management Action Plan for theTeaching and Learning ImprovementUnit, the establishment of this Unitas a separate identity and its wellmotivatedstaff were recognised asstrengths. Using this plan as a tool,the Unit focused on improving itsoutput. The Teaching and LearningImprovement Unit managed tosignificantly improve its output, both interms of the number of workshops andseminars presented, and feedbackgiven to staff on their performancethrough the student staff evaluationsystem.Academic activitiesWhereas overseeing the implementationof the fi rst and second academic yearsof the newly revised and approvedundergraduate degree programmes wasthe major activity during 2008, the focusmoved to the revision of all remainingpost-graduate programmes during the2009 academic year.The Unit together with the Departmentof Curriculum, Instruction and AssesmentStudies in the Faculty of Education,embarked on a comprehensive mid-termreview of the implementation of the revisedundergraduate degrees to establish theextent to which the revised curriculum asintended was actually implemented byacademic and support staff.This process involved a number ofactivities such as a questionnaireaddressing the views and perceptionsof students and academic staff withregards to the implementation of thenew undergraduate degree curriculum,focus group discussions, classroomobservations and a comparison ofmodule descriptors with examinationpapers to determine the degree to whichstated learning outcomes were assessedduring examinations.Annual Report 2009 -67-