Lightning Talk Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency Conference 2019

Rethinking Student Engagement in VU's Postgraduate Block Model through an Innovative Partnership to Provide High Levels of 1:1 Personalised Student Support  (#12)

Chris Walsh 1 , Michael Ratcliff 1
  1. Victoria University, Melbourne, VICTORIA, Australia

In 2018, Victoria University (VU) implemented a new online postgraduate block model of education through a third-party relationship to maximise student engagement and reduce attrition. This offering’s legal agreements with the third-party minimises risks to quality and reduces attrition. The online postgraduate block model provides personalised 1:1 student support through activity-based learning with quick responses to student inquiries 24/7 (85% of inquires post 5pm responded to with 60 minutes). VU’s unique online postgraduate block model is presented alongside VU Online’s robust governance and management policies and procedures that ensure delivery of courses are monitored and quality assured. VU’s postgraduate online block model offers students a high level of 1-on-1 support from 1 unit coordinator (educator), and then additional support from 1 unit facilitator for every 25 students enrolled. Using the 3rd party’s proprietary software, VU Online accesses high-level performance data that includes the number of phone conversations, the topics and the breakdown of average time per conversation and student, as well as the total LMS posts responded to and emails exchanged. VU Online’s third-party arrangement (TPA) ensures each unit is delivered consistently and ensures VU has the ability to ensure all relevant Standards are met.