Future-Proofing Postgraduate Learning and Assessment Strategies for Deeper Learning

Abstract

In the twenty-first century, teachers in postgraduate education are, consciously or otherwise, attempting to prepare students to operate in “complex” contexts where outcomes are often unknown. The teaching role and task for academics is evolving from content provider and knowledge guardian into process designer and professional coach. Conversely, the learning role and task for students is emerging as one that requires engaging with personal “attributes” and developing capacities for knowledge integration as part of a lifelong learning strategy. To prepare graduates for a rapidly changing world and workplace, this chapter demonstrates future-proofed teaching and learning strategies together with attribute-based approaches to assessment using innovative software. The implementation of these in different postgraduate degrees at two Australian universities is used to demonstrate how these changing paradigms can be embraced by students, academics, and external accrediting bodies.