September 2009 — Volume 3, Issue 5

Sister act ... keeping it in the family

For the first time the ALTC has awarded two separate citations to sisters. One is a librarian who as part of a team provides an innovative service to disadvantaged students and the other an academic developer who has contributed to learning and teaching leadership.

“We have come into universities via different paths,” says Madeleine Mann, a librarian at the University of Technology, Sydney and a member of the Alternative Formats Service (AFS) team, awarded a citation for its development of a service providing learning materials to students with print disabilities.

Her sister Dr Geraldine Lefoe began her career in the public school sector where she worked as an educational technology consultant. “Geraldine started out as a teacher and has moved into supporting academics and their teaching. I’m a librarian interested in supporting students’ learning through the use of technology,” says Ms Mann.

Ms Mann and her AFS team members, Beth Marnane and Rolf Wood, developed a service which provides learning materials to students with print disabilities – ranging from learning disabilities like dyslexia, to mobility and visual disabilities – in alternative electronic formats.

“Providing course material to these students through the AFS places them on par with other students enrolled in the same subjects by delivering textual materials to them in a form which can be easily turned into their preferred learning formats – and doing so very quickly, sometimes even before semester commences.”

Ms Mann stresses the importance of support staff documenting what they do and applying for awards
such as ALTC’s Citations.

“Gathering data, surveying students and documenting the processes of developing the
service informed the planning for improvements and gave us a clear idea of the impact of the service on the students.

We discovered that the average number of subjects taken by students receiving the service increased
from 1.6 per annum in 2004 to 4.6 in 2008. Being awarded the ALTC Citation has enabled us to share our findings and the processes we developed with others in the sector to the benefit of students with print disabilities in other universities.”

So successful has the service been that Vision Australia has used it as best practice model for its own AFS that it will eventually roll out to all Australian universities.

Meanwhile, Dr Lefoe, since joining the University of Wollongong in 1996, has been responsible for significant
changes to the way UoW teaches and develops the teaching skills of its staff.
 
Amongst the staff programs that she has conceived is a program to help early career academics get published in teaching in higher education. Another, the Faculty Scholars program, brings together faculty-based academics with academic developers to support change in learning and teaching that will improve student learning.

“Doctoral research identified that leadership for improving teaching and learning was not a strong component
of the university’s strategic direction in 2000. In nine years it has really turned around. It’s been amazing.”

As leader of an ALTC-funded project, Dr Lefoe was able to take the Faculty Scholars model beyond the university and it has become a national program for developing leadership in teaching and learning. At Wollongong the program alumni have begun to take up formal positions of leadership within
the university.

Dr Lefoe believes that for universities to look towards the leadership component of teaching and learning is quite a new area but that they are still not looking sufficiently long-term in
preparation for the future.

“What we have to do is identify people and support leadership capacity development to make sure that we have sustainable long-term plans for leadership capacity development for our future leaders for teaching and learning.

“The work that ALTC has done over the last three years has really raised the profile of leadership in teaching and learning in universities and made people be able to stand up and say proudly that they do it.”