Overview

• ACU’s unique position as a multi-campus institution crossing state boundaries, provides opportunities to work collaboratively to create learning experiences for our students.
• ACU’s unique national context provides an overarching framework for the delivery of curricula.
• The National Curriculum Framework guides curricula delivery in practice.

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Balancing consistency, flexibility, and opportunity

ACU’s unique position as a multi-campus institution crossing state boundaries, provides opportunities to work collaboratively to create learning experiences for our students.

A nationalised model of curriculum can be challenging to conceptualise and manage. Such a model must balance the advantages of consistency with opportunities to provide unique and flexible learning experiences for students. These experiences can draw upon the unique features of disciplines and the unique attributes of academics within a specific physical, virtual or regulatory environment. Such flexibility has the potential to put students at the centre of their learning by engaging them in enriching and meaningful learning experiences.

Achieving the appropriate balance between uniformity and specificity can be a challenging task. This challenge is exacerbated by the operational constraints of a national model. Even in courses where there is a high degree of consistency in terms of teaching approach and resources, every learning experience is unique.

Your students, your unique context, with equity as the driver

Achieving the right ‘mix’ between more fixed and more dynamic and flexible elements of the curriculum requires collaboration and planning. Where the right balance is struck within a specific context, teachers have the opportunity to draw upon their unique expertise and stylistic preferences to bring curriculum to life and engage with students. Such flexibility can be accommodated provided students have the opportunity to achieve the learning outcomes.

For example:

• variances in local practices can allow for comparing and contrasting a range of practices, therefore improving student understanding
• accreditation requirements can be adhered to whilst concurrently recognising broader principles
• differing modes and environments (physical and virtual) can accommodate a balance of social experiences and flexibility for students
• differing staff capacities and stylistic preferences can assist academics to see other perspectives and integrate these into their teaching practice
• multiple campuses or differing modes may have specific resources to draw upon

The National Curriculum Framework aims to support academic staff in developing outcomes driven curricula that places the students at its centre. In doing so it is recognised that the operational efficiency afforded by consistency at certain levels is also an imperative.