Topical conversations with industry experts bring AAA pedagogy alive

Topical conversations with industry experts bring AAA pedagogy alive

Professor Alberto Posso, course-coordinator of ‘Understanding the business environment’, conducts meaningful, relevant conversations with industry experts aligned to weekly topics to build contextual understanding of business sectors and career options.

Background

The Context 

The foundation level course ‘Understanding the business environment’ was re-designed in 2022 as part of the first-year block built for the new Bachelor of Business. Professor Alberto Posso took the opportunity to introduce more meaningful, relevant learning experiences aligned to real-world contexts in the course and found this approach boosted participation and engagement in recorded lectorials and in-person tutorials.

Active, Applied and Authentic (AAA) cirriculum design

Active

Students are active partners in their learning and learning activities are experiential and problem-based.

Applied

RMIT Capabilities & Industry-partnered learning (IPL) is embedded in all programs.

Authentic

Authentic Outcomes and Relevant, practical assessment.

Topic planning: Professor Posso works closely with course-coordinators of the foundation courses in the first-year block to plot out the topics each course will cover to ensure that students gain the foundational knowledge to support their choice of major(s) in the Bachelor of Business, without experiencing overlapping content.

Industry lens: Weekly topics are introduced through interviews Professor Posso conducts with leaders from key organisations such as the United Nations, Oxfam and the World Bank, where he discusses the latest industry developments, opportunities or challenges framed by each topic. Students are required to watch the recorded interviews before class and to complete an interactive exercise (using H5P) where they reflect on the topic and review what was covered in the interview. The topic is further explored in tutorials through peer to peer and group discussions lead by Professor Posso.

Assessment: Many students undertaking a business degree do not understand how topics might be relevant to their future (as they are often not sure what their future career might look like!). With this in mind, Professor Posso designs course assessments to replicate tasks students might encounter in their first year of work in the key business areas of economics, finance, law or marketing.

  • Assignment 1: Students undertake a job interview (using Interview 360) for an entry level business assistant job - with the first 3 questions based on an interview for an authentic economics job. 

  • Assignment 2: Students are told they have got the ‘job‘ and receive a video briefing from their ‘manager’ to complete their first task. This requires conducting the background research for a micro-economics report and creating supporting graphs.

  • Assignment 3: This builds on assignment 2 and switches the focus to macro-economics tasks. The ‘manager’ provides feedback on assignment 2 and asks them to present their findings at a ‘conference‘. Students record their presentation as if they were at an authentic conference and submit online.

two women smiling at a computer

What technologies, spaces and foundational components supported this Snapshot?

Note that links require an RMIT staff login. 

Tools, teachnology and spaces 

A range of business technologies and tools are used to drive engagement and authenticity in this course and enable and support application of AAA Pedagogy:

Career Centre 

  • Interview 360 – Used for practicing interview techniques and to deliver assignment 1

Tools

  • Canvas Studio – for recording the weekly interviews with industry experts

  • H5P – used to create interactive weekly quizzes based on the weekly topic interview

Digital learning spaces 

  • Canvas LMS

  • Teams Meetings

19 April 2024

Share

19 April 2024

Share

Related news

two women smiling at a computer

Topical conversations with industry experts bring AAA pedagogy alive

Professor Alberto Posso, course-coordinator of ‘Understanding the business environment’, conducts meaningful, relevant conversations with industry experts aligned to weekly topics to build contextual understanding of business sectors and career options.

four females presenting in class

Thinking holistically and designing collaboratively to embed AAA across a new program

This snapshot shows how RMIT’s signature active, applied and authentic (AAA) pedagogy manifests in the build of a new undergraduate program through holistic design of learning activities and assessment that: actively engage students, apply 'real-world' problems or scenarios and have authentic, meaningful purpose.

four women talking outside in the city

Actively preparing students for global careers

Find out how RMIT academic and Course Coordinator, Dr Christopher Denis Delacour, strategically designed three cycles of career development learning in his course Global Careers, to help students understand their career options and job skill requirements, helping them prepare for global careers.

five people in a meeting room

Innovative design wraps the MBA in AAA

Program Manager Kevin Argus and the College of Business and Law (CoBL) Learning Design team use a holistic learning design process and Learning Arches methodology to build a sequence of authentic and action-based learning activities and assessments to boost graduate outcomes and student engagement in the Master of Business Administration (MBA) program.

Show more
aboriginal flag
torres strait flag

Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Luwaytini' by Mark Cleaver, Palawa.

More information