DISCIPLINE
Natural Resources Management
Agriculture
Urban Regional Planning

DURATION
Entire length of unit/subject (13 weeks)

ICT USED
Internal students (on-campus) have structured learning every week, whereas the external students use the WebCT Bulletin Board to raise questions (problem solving) around the situation statement at discreet times (Weeks 1 and 2, and 5 and 6 in the unit). They also use the Bulletin Board to ask task-related questions regarding assignment structure and assessment.

DELIVERY CONTEXT
The learning design has been implemented in a subject with both on-campus students (internal) and off-campus (external) students. Thus, a mixture of face-to-face and online delivery was used for the on-campus students whereas the learning design was delivered to the external students online, and supported by hard copy of all situation statements (in handbook), and replies to questions as email attachment or hard copy in notes delivered part-way through the unit. Also, at the compulsory residential school stage 3 questions and reply were conducted face-to-face.

TARGET AUDIENCE
The unit is offered as an undergraduate 3rd year unit or at postgraduate level for course work masters in Natural Resources, Environmental Science or Graduate Diploma in Natural Resources and Urban Regional Planning.

Internal student profile is mostly school leavers and no postgraduate students. More than 2/3 of the students are completing an undergraduate degree in Natural Resources, while the remainder are completing an undergraduate degree in Urban Regional Planning.

External student profile is dominated (66%) by undergraduate students completing an Urban Regional Planning degree while the remainder are undergraduate students in Natural Resources. Many more of the external students are mature age students and working in the planning field. About 1/10 of the external students are undertaking the unit at postgraduate course work level.

The Urban Regional Planning students have very little prior knowledge on soils prior to this unit.

COHORT
100 students (70 external, 30 internal)

In the internal mode the learning design supports 40 students in groups of 6 with one lecturer. In external mode the learning design supports online up to 100 students, but often participation on the Bulletin Board is only 50% of the class. When students are at the residential school they are divided into 2 groups of between 35-40, and then into smaller groups of 6. Also responses by the lecturer on the Bulletin Board are made collectively, and not in response to individual questions. Ideally one lecturer/instructor can support 6 to 7 student groups (n=6 students/group) in one student cohort/subject intake.

BROADER CONTEXT
The learning design is implemented three times in one subject and is worth 60% of their overall grade for the unit. The PBL assessment is divided into 3 stages. Stage 1 and 2 are assessed together and worth 30% of overall grade (submitted in week 8 and returned 2 weeks later). Stage 3 of PBL is submitted in week 13 and returned 2 weeks later and is worth 30% of overall grade. The activity is assessed individually, and in total is about 6 400 words, and operates over the whole semester. The activity parallels the unit curriculum. The idea was to combine lecturer-facilitated learning in class, via online chapters, or via the study guide, with self-directed learning where the student focussed on areas they needed to know more about in order to interpret or give meaning to further information supplied on the scenario.

Most students are undertaking this unit as part of an undergraduate degree in Natural Resources and Urban Regional Planning. It is usually completed at third year level and is a compulsory core unit for both degrees. Both degrees operate over 4 years and are comprised of 8 units per year (48 credit points, 6 credit points per unit). This unit is also a prerequisite for other 4th year units such as Sustainable Land Management in the Natural Resources degree.

The intended learning outcomes are outlined as follows.

1. Review and think critically about the information on the content areas in question.
2. Demonstrate that you can access up-to-date, relevant and informative information about the content areas in question
3. Read and think about the information you have collected and form your own opinion, and questions.
4. Demonstrate that you do not accept data at face value and can decide on its reliability and worth.
5. Report your findings in a manner that can be understood by a wide audience.
6. Reflect on your own learning arising from the process of writing the synopsis.

IMPLEMENTATION OF ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES
The marking framework is designed with internal students and emphasises qualities required for the assignment and criteria by which they can be measured. The qualities that are emphasised are:

• expression and presentation;
• factual accuracy;
• content coverage;
• level of synthesis; and
• research effort.

These qualities are emphasised rather than specific answers to questions.

The write-up of each stage is assessed individually.

The PBL assessment is divided into 3 stages:

• Stage 1 and 2 are assessed together and worth 30% of overall grade (submitted in week 8 and returned 2 weeks later).
• Stage 3 of PBL is submitted in week 13 and returned 2 weeks later and is worth 30% of overall grade.

IMPORTANCE OF ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES USED
The assessment strategies are designed to emphasise the learning skills the teacher expects them to demonstrate in their answers. Students play a role in the design of the marking frameworks and have a workshop on assessment. In the workshop they learn about the difficulties in assessment and the importance of feedback for their learning.

ICT was used to raise questions concerning the problem based learning situation so that students could learn more about the situation, and resolve what was happening.

The use of ICT facilitates synchronous conversation of external locations from the university. It enables interaction between students and teacher at times convenient to both.

The most important aspect of the use of ICT in the learning design is the process of students and teacher learning from each other.