Wiley Education Services partnered with the University of Queensland to develop ECON1310, a transformative online course for which Professor Carl Sherwood has recently won the 2017 Australian Award for University Teaching for Law, Economics, Business and Related Studies.
The Award program acknowledges that ‘Mr Sherwood has successfully translated and shared his unique approaches through the publishing of numerous online videos and the significant redesign… His creative and scholarly approaches to teaching statistics in large classes captivates students’ interests through appreciating their diverse educational backgrounds, learning expectations and desired outcomes.’
The ECON1310 course takes a different approach to teaching introductory statistics by integrating original video content with the reading material. Interactives and assessment activities have also been incorporated to help students test and apply their learning after each section.
Videos of Mr. Sherwood giving lectures help instil the feel of face-to-face learning.
The award-winning online course for introductory statistics
This helps increase student engagement, especially when factoring in students who may be taking the course solely online from various locations around the globe.
One student enrolled in the ECON1310 Summer 2016 cohort had praise for the course from the start: ‘Hello Carl! I just checked out the site (I am in Dubai and will be 6 hours behind you for a month) and am so happy! It looks so good and different from the other courses I had in the past semester. Really well done! … I already watched the introductory videos and am so excited to get started.’
Wiley Education Services worked with Mr. Sherwood to redesign the online delivery of the course, combining original and repurposed content within a learning design built to facilitate student retention. With an established track record of developing digital courses and designing solutions for in-class, blended and online programs, Wiley Education Services helped UQ deliver a course that could pave the way for online course design in other Australian universities.
‘I was extremely impressed with the speed and professionalism Wiley brought to the detailing and design of my introductory statistics course Blackboard site.’ Mr. Sherwood said.
‘In particular, their Senior Learning Designer always ensured prompt and reliable delivery of high quality work. Wiley was always very flexible and accommodating to work with, while managing to ensure strictly imposed deadlines were adhered to over an intense 11-week project period.’
UQ eLearning Manager Simon Collyer said of the partnership: ‘I think the model used by Carl and Wiley is something that is scalable and future compatible – and I suspect it’s the model the higher education industry might largely adopt in the end, because publishers have the resources to build high quality content and tools, and the ability to achieve economies of scale through distribution networks.’
The Australian Awards for University Teaching recognise those among Australia’s most outstanding university teachers and programs, contributing to the quality of student learning and student experience in higher education. View the full list of 2017 winners here.
Our Wiley Education Services team collaborates with higher education partners to help expand their reach, optimise their institutions, and stay competitive. For more information or to hear about custom solutions for your institution, please contact us.