2024 Learning Outcomes Symposium
*Save the Date Announcement and Call for Proposals*
We are pleased to announce that planning is underway for the 2024 Learning Outcomes Symposium.
The upcoming conference, entitled A Path to System Transformation, will be held on October 29 and 30, 2024, at the Chelsea Hotel in downtown Toronto. Both conference days will be in-person only. Details on registration and schedule will follow soon.
Submissions are being solicited for 45-minute presentations and 90-minute interactive workshops; further guidelines are included in the attached Call for Proposals.
The deadline for submission is Wednesday, May 1, 2024.
Omnibus Report
The Report on the Review of the Quality Council in 2018 remarked that Quality Assurance (QA) Key Contacts, as a group, have the potential to be a powerful resource for continuous improvement across the sector. To facilitate this, the revised Framework explicitly identifies Exchange Forums (and the Key Contact Meeting) as a mechanism for tracking and facilitating continuous improvement across the system.
Event Summaries 2021-22
Key Contact Exchange Forum 1
Participants: 46 Key Contacts representing all 21 universities
Key Theme 1: Communicating to external reviewers
This was deemed to be a critical component of a successful review. Key takeaways included:
- Advance preparation and guidance for external reviewers is key
- Pre-meetings / orientation in advance of the site visit, which could be virtual.
- Sharing of external reviewers’ report template in advance of the site visit.
- Appointment letters / Terms of Reference sent to external reviewers, containing an overview of the process and expectations for the review.
- Debrief sessions during the site visit to keep expectations in focus – one institution mentioned holding quick debriefs at the start and end of each day.
- Check-in session with the external reviewers at the end of the site visit to clarify next steps.
Use of informal channels to work with external reviewers to ensure their report meets requirements prior to these being sent to unit/Dean for comment.
Key Theme 3: Internal reviewers
The role of and expectations forinternal reviewers, when used, varies across universities. Ensuring they are clear on what is expected of them and offering opportunities to get feedback on how this function is working can be helpful. In addition, at least one university uses members of its Senate sub-committee responsible for QA to fill the role of internal reviewers. This ensures those in these roles have sufficient knowledge and context to participate in the review in a meaningful and informed manner
Key Theme 2: Qualifications
Determining whether external reviewers are suitably qualified, particularly with respect to pedagogy, learning outcomes, and assessment of student achievement, can be challenging.
Key Contact Exchange Forum 2
Key Theme 1 – Resources
Some universities have staff/resources dedicated to facilitating monitoring processes, but for others, it is mostly up to units and/or Deans to coordinate monitoring processes and reports. It was noted that:
- Sufficient resources provide the opportunity for QA staff to work with the units so they see the benefits of the CPR process overall and understand the importance of the monitoring stage. The result is that QA becomes part of the unit’s culture.
- The resources available also affect the degree to which these processes are centralized or decentralized.
- It can be hard to ensure continuous improvement actually occurs if there are inadequate or no dedicated resources.
Tip sheets and/or templates have been found to be very helpful, when used. Those QA Key Contacts that did not currently have these in place, or were only beginning to create these, would appreciate seeing examples from others that have received positive feedback (internally) on their own. Posting these on the QA Key Contact website would be appreciated
Summary and Dates
Event Summaries 2022-23
Key Contact Exchange Forum 1
Summary
Key Theme 1
Summary
Key Contact Exchange Forum 2
Summary