Graduate Qualities
As a student progresses through a program the aims and objectives of the courses need to reflect his/her growing abilities and engagement with the field. For instance, a first year course may be focussed on producing a general understanding of the field while those in later years may emphasise critique and evaluation or practical application. Each course's objectives should reflect the minimum level of engagement expected of students.
Bloom's taxonomy and the Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome (SOLO) taxonomy indicate levels of understanding. Mapping your course objectives to these taxonomies will ensure that your course involves appropriate cognitive activity for the course's year level. In both of these taxonomies the kinds of verbs used to indicate activity are related to the intellectual outcomes that are expected. When writing your course objectives and producing the assessment tasks which evaluate students' achievement of these objectives, identifying appropriate verbs is a good place to start.
Keep in mind that the skills and capacities required within the final years of a program must be encouraged and developed in the earlier courses. You cannot wait until the final year to give students practice in developing critical and evaluative reasoning for instance. Nevertheless by recognising what you can reasonably demand of your students, while still aiming to embed higher order practices and thinking into courses, is a useful way of designing your assessment.
The goal of a program is to develop a graduate who has achieved the relevant graduate qualities. The particular knowledge, skills and behaviour of a graduate emerging into a professional area, must therefore be designed into the overall structure of the program. Each course has a role in this development, but the nature of this role depends on the year level of the course. Identifying the role your course plays in the overall development of your graduates is useful in determining the objectives and related assessment tasks of your course.
Although not prescriptive, each year level of a three year degree program can be identified with a particular function in building the knowledges, skills and attitudes of a UniSA graduate.
All courses fit across categories within this taxonomy, but may emphasise attainment within one area over others.
The Progression of graduate qualities across a program tool (Word .doc 40Kb) can be used to describe the progression of graduate qualities across a program and the outcomes required at the end of each year level. To use this tool:
An Example of progression of graduate qualities across a program (Word .doc 44KB) using the fictional 3 year undergraduate program Office Supply Management has been supplied to indicate how this document may be used.
For further assistance in developing your program or course in relation to graduate qualities, please contact the Academic Development team.
