Direct Entry
Programs SIG End-of-Year Newsletter
2020 Review
Looking back to the start of the year, the DEP SIG had
plans which may have been a little ambitious. We hoped to develop a
process document and professional development workshops to support
member colleges in undertaking benchmarking activities, and also
earmarked a review and update of the 2017 Guide to Best
Practice in Direct Entry Programs. Needless to say, the year
had other things in stall for us! What we did achieve was the
building of a strong DEP SIG community through the generous sharing
of experiences, insights and responses to the impacts of COVID-19
on our programs. The innovation and responses to our shared
challenges were evident on each of the occasions we came together
in Zoom to support one another through our emergency transition to
online delivery, and beyond. Despite being busier than ever, we
were able to explore a range of priority issues. We hope you enjoy
reflecting on our incredible 2020 journey through the following
summary of the events we hosted and topics discussed.
18 February -
Webinar: ''Balancing academic and English language skills taught in
Direct Entry Programs''
A significant conversation to emerge in 2019 was
around the balance of English Language and Academic Skills
development in Direct Entry Programs and we are pleased to have
been able to host a webinar on this topic just prior to the year
veering off in new directions. Brooke Donnelly, Education Manager
University Pathways at Centre for English Teaching at the
University of Sydney and Stephen Walker, Academic Manager, English
Language Assessment and Pathway Programs at ICTE each shared their
approach to the balance of academic and English language skills in
their Direct Entry Program, followed by a Q&A. The
discussion centred around how we define ''academic skills'' and
''academic language proficiency' and examined the principles
underpinning our approaches to course and assessment design, and
how these impact the ''balance'' of academic and English language
skills in our programs.
25 March - Panel
Discussion: Approaches to delivering courses
online
In response to a new set of needs brought about by the
COVID-19 crisis, we came together to discuss our approaches to
delivering courses online. Cara Dineen (Macquarie University),
Donna Cook (ACU), Will Alderton (CQUEnglish) and Maria Naidoo (UNSW
Global) led an informal discussion (in our first of several Zoom
sessions for the year) focused on new online delivery models,
timetables and platforms being used. The four centres briefly
shared their approaches before opening up for questions and further
contributions from members.
6 May - Workshop:
Current challenges and progress made in the online teaching
space
Having had a month to test our online delivery
approaches, we ran a second Zoom meeting to reflect on student
interactions online and managing offshore students. The
commonalities in focus between the Assessment SIG and the DEP SIG
soon became apparent with discussions about the impacts of online
delivery on academic integrity in assessment.
16 June -
Workshop: Planning for future F2F delivery
Half-way through the year, somewhat optimistically,
centres started planning for a return to face-to-face teaching.
This meeting was designed for members of the SIG to come together
to openly discuss challenges on the road ahead and share ideas
about their plans for a return to face-to-face. 39 members
registered and issues around managing hybrid delivery started to
surface due to the low number of students remaining onshore.
This was also an opportunity to share challenges we were facing
with teaching both onshore and offshore students combined in Direct
Entry Programs. Centres faced challenges attracting students to
travel to campus often due to travel distances or general
reluctance to be in a face-to-face class. Centres discussed how
they were managing safety measures such as physical distancing and
hygiene. This is something that will no doubt continue to
challenge us into 2021.
27 August -
Workshop: Priority areas
Early in August we ran a survey of members to help us
identify priority areas for the DEP SIG to focus on in the second
part of the year. Following the survey, we hosted a third workshop
to discuss three topics members identified as priorities:
-
Finding a balance between English language, Academic
and Digital literacy skills in an online DEP course
-
Promoting academic integrity in an online DEP
course
-
Issues and opportunities for DEPs post-COVID.
At this meeting members also raised the need to
revisit the Standards and several members shared how their centres
were moving to different forms of assessment.
18 November -
Swapshop 1: Adapting Assessment for Online
Delivery
In this joint Assessment and Direct Entry Program SIG
collaboration, 39 members came together to participate in a
showcase of how ELICOS centres have adapted their assessment tasks
for online delivery. The following members shared their assessment
adaptations:
-
Cara Dinneen, Macquarie University English Language
Centre
-
Tony Hickey, University of Sydney's Centre for English
Teaching
-
Santina Scully, LaTrobe College
-
Svetlana Lukovic, ACU Centre for Languages North
Sydney
-
James Heath, UNSW Global
-
Will Alderton, CQUEnglish
Breakout Room discussions focused on whether any of
these adaptations would work in members' centres and how other
centres have adapted similar assessments for the online
environment. Participants swapped ideas on what had worked and what
hadn't been as successful.
2 December -
Swapshop 2: Adapting Assessment for Online
Delivery
Building on the momentum of the first swapshop, the
second swapshop had resounding support with 77 Assessment and
Direct Entry Program SIG members participating. The following
centres presented their assessment adaptations:
-
Natalie Oostergo, IES
-
Agi Bodes, Dept. of Linguistics Macquarie
University
-
Dr Linh Le, Federation Technology Institute
-
Martin Walsh, The English Language Company
Auckland
-
Alex Austin, E2 Language
On behalf of the SIG, we wish you a safe and happy
holiday season and renewed energy for 2021!
Will Alderton, Maria Naidoo & Maggie
Swannock (2019-2020 DEP SIG Convenors)
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