Degree and assessment overviews enable faculty to improve their academic offering

Universities need to prepare their students for the 21st century and make their assessments relevant to the jobs market, Jenny Poskitt, director of college projects at Massey University* in New Zealand, told a recent round-table panel, hosted by Times Higher Education in partnership with Blackboard.

“If we are really thinking about preparing our students for the 21st century, preparing them for citizenship and for the workplace, where there are real-world problems to solve, we need to broaden the types of assessments we’re setting,” Poskitt told participants of the roundtable.

Roundtable participants:

• Giselle Byrnes, provost, Massey University
• Lisa Champion, manager of academic quality and standards, Edith Cowan University
• Fleur Connor-Douglas, director of curriculum transformation, Massey University
• Peter Cook, associate deputy vice-chancellor for students, Southern Cross University
• Geoffrey Crisp, deputy vice-chancellor and vice-president for academic, University of Canberra
• Maree Dinan-Thompson, deputy vice-chancellor for students, James Cook University
• Joyce Lau, Asia editor, Times Higher Education (chair)
• Carol Miles, senior curriculum management architect, Blackboard (chair)
• Pip Pattison, deputy vice-chancellor for education, The University of Sydney
• Jenny Poskitt, director of college projects, Massey University
• Tim Wess, deputy vice-chancellor for academic, University of the Sunshine Coast – USC

* Massey University, The University of Sydney, and University of the Sunshine Coast are Akari Software clients.