student feedback and leadership - Office for Learning and Teaching

Part A: Developing a Distributed Leadership Model - Secton 3: Building Leadership Capacity––social affinity/the ‘networked student’;––learning environments, administration and resource.A key finding in the report was the need to more closely align studentOrientation and Induction. Orientation involves general familiarisation of thestudent with the University community. Induction relates more to academicfamiliarisation of the student with their program of study. While StudentServices have developed a more inclusive program to engage studentssocially across the university this needs to be linked to their programsof study.The University Registrar explained the purpose of action taken by RMIT inresponse to complaints from students about their perception of inconsistentand unjust decisions in regard to their assessment, and the need to providea more systematic approach to assisting students with chronic conditionsby a more inclusive Special Consideration policy. A new policy has beendeveloped to be inclusive in the sense that the aim is to make equitableassessment arrangements the preferred choice for students with chronicconditions.The representative from People and Culture identified the need for closeralignment between the issues that emerged in this project and the formalprofessional development opportunity for leadership and student feedbackin various aspects of management. RMIT had a Leadership program for theSenior Executive for the past two years. In 2008 this program was extendedto a second stage to include staff with Direct Reports to the Senior Executive(Directors of Research and Learning and Teaching, Program Directors).However there is a need to link this more closely to leadership needsestablished in this project.Following this presentation participants to the Plenary were asked to consider:––What are the key priorities for professional development for staff in the useof student feedback?––What additions to current professional development opportunities wouldassist to support initiatives to improve student feedback?– – What actions would make the process better to support participationof RMIT staff in projects like the ALTC Leadership grant?Page 61