Lecture theatres may be a thing of the past as the University of Tasmania embarks on a bold new education future as part of its ambitious Northern Transformation plan.
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As UTAS prepares to submit its development application for the bricks-and-mortar campus, Associate Professor Stuart Crispin has detailed plans of how education at UTAS will look strikingly different.
"There has been a big change in student need and demand; the average student today is not a year 12 leaver but they are people who might have been working and graduated a long time ago, or have worked and never come to UTAS," he said.
Associate Professor Crispin said the Northern Transformation plan offered an opportunity to look at how education was delivered at the university and how it might do better.
"A large part of looking at our delivery is also challenging things, how we've always done them," he said.
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Associate Professor Crispin said traditional lectures, bachelor degrees and 13-week semesters were all things that were being examined and were likely to change come 2021 when students are on the campus.
"A lecture is a traditional educational device but it's not that effective," he said.
With the advent of technology, information could be more effectively delivered online through podcasts, or reading, without the need for two-hour lectures.
"We can use that class time to be more activity-focused," Associate Professor Crispin said.
Other changes could be breaking up larger courses into smaller chunks and engaging people in "lifelong learning."
"We want people to be able to take the piece of learning they need right now in their career and come back to what they need later on in their career."
Courses at the Launceston campus will be "regionally relevant" and UTAS is seeking feedback from the community and industry about what the workforce in the region needs.
"For students, they can take those skills to other regions because there are lots of places in the world with similar challenges," Associate Professor Crispin said.
One course that will be unique to Launceston is the business course, which is an accelerated course run from Enterprize.
Associate Professor Crispin said Launceston had a "rich history as the commercial centre" of Tasmania and, as such, UTAS was looking to work with industry to ensure its courses supported the start-up and business communities.
"However, it also has that cycle of economic change we are seeing new industries emerge, so we are trying to see what those new industries will be," he said.
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