This post was authored in collaboration with Dr Katrina Thorpe and staff from UTS CAIK.

In their Indigenous Strategy 2017-2020, Universities Australia outlined a clear intention to increase the cultural capability of all graduates by committing “to having plans in place to meet the outcome of enhanced graduate capability by 2020”. Yet few universities have ready-made professional development resources to ensure that academic staff are prepared either to teach or supervise Indigenous students, non-Indigenous students undertaking Indigenous-related projects, or develop relevant curriculum. The team from the UTS Centre for the Advancement of Indigenous Knowledges (CAIK), in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, set out to develop a suite of microcredentials with Postgraduate Learning Design (PGLD) to address this significant gap. The team, including national experts Professors Susan Page and Gawaian Bodkin-Andrews, aimed to develop an innovative offering that learners could complete independently and at their own pace. 

The project was initially supported by a 2019 Postgraduate Strategic Funding Program, which facilitated the employment of an Indigenous project manager and provided access to a team of learning designers who worked with the CAIK team on the co-design and development of the courses. 

Using example elements from a page in the Canvas subject site, we detail three important things we learnt during the development of the first microcredential in the project Supervising Indigenous Higher Degree Research  

  1. The importance of trust.
  2. The value of conversation and iteration.
  3. The strength of a multidisciplinary team. 

The importance of trust

The Supervising Indigenous Higher Degree Research microcredential was first offered in 2021 with 26 learners from universities across the country and has now run 4 times with over 150 learners across 15 Australian universities. This has exceeded expectations particularly as the course was offered at a time when university funds were generally limited nationwide. Vital to the successful development of this microcredential has been the work of the team, comprised of the discipline experts from CAIK, the learning design team and contributions from Indigenous artist Nathan Peckham of Yurana Creative and Indigenous and non-Indigenous HDR students, graduates and scholars. The learning design team supported the innovation CAIK staff were so keen to embrace by ensuring that the content knowledge was presented in interesting and engaging ways. Through this process we have reimagined the composition of a teaching team beyond traditional ideas of what it can look like. 

The two images below show how one page was developed collaboratively. In Canvas, you can create pages through a combination of rich-text and HTML formatting. The intuitive nature of the platform meant that the learning design team was able to invite academic co-designers to draft directly on the Canvas page. One of the great features of Canvas is that it is very hard to break something, and it has robust versioning abilities which means it’s also hard to lose your work. 

A screenshot demonstrating the early version of a page containing information about NHMRC as part of the course. It consists of paragraphs of black text on a white background, with no images.
An example of a page in its early stages.

The value of conversation and iteration

Another important element of our collaboration was seeing the value of iteration through ongoing conversation. In our case, this was via weekly meetings and an agreed mode of communication in the form of colour coded notes in the pages themselves – a bit like when you collaborate on a document. Everyone worked together on the pages which resulted in a very clean and polished final presentation but it also meant a sometimes-messy process of drafting.  

The CAIK team took to Canvas with gusto, but that doesn’t mean it was always easy-going. The first image in the above paragraph shows where we started in July of 2020, while the following images show a final version of the page finished in November 2020. We authored this page through 89 touch points and 20 iterations, involving page design and many hours of online video-conference discussion.   

Every learning design project has its challenges. Occasionally, these arise from a disconnect between the academic and the learning designer and team because they may have a different vision for a specific resource, a page or whole subject! Our way around this was ‘talking it out’ regularly, and building a strong working relationship between a team of multidisciplinary experts who shared a passion for and commitment to this work and were open to learning from one another throughout the process. Building and sustaining this community of practice might be one of the hidden ingredients in a successful course design build.

The strength of a multidisciplinary team

In designing our example, we spent a lot of time thinking about how to make a potentially ‘dry’ policy document related to complex and confronting issues engaging to learners. We present a choice for learners by providing optional links to more information (like the NHMRC website). We chunked information in different formats like video and through the ‘Explore’ interactive. There is also a scaffolding activity that progressively moves students to a stronger understanding of the material through the ‘Read, consider, compare’ activity using HTML layout, H5P document tool and Canvas social poll.  

The design of the interactive also involved the whole team discussing content organisation, authenticity of imagery and design, and ease of access and WCAG standards. Everyone on the team brought a perspective, and the result is an inviting presentation of the content. 

As microcredentials go, this was a successful one. Simple, to the point, rounded, informative and in format that gets us to both be attentive and to engage with the content. Thank you. 

Microcredential learner feedback

Thanks. The course is well designed and delivered, and the activities and assessments are well paced for working academics to undertake. 

Microcredential learner feedback

With Supervising Indigenous Higher Degree Research Students being offered twice a year, we’re proud to see our work resonate with learners. Stay tuned for our next offering ‘Developing Indigenised Curriculum’, anticipated to be opening for enrolment in 2023. 

Feature image from artwork by Nathan Peckham, adapted by Jessy Mai.

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