Ara Kick off day -

Ara’s ‘Kick-Off’ day brought together all the staff of the Academic, Innovation and Research (AIR) division to launch the creation of the new entity- which was formed late last year through combining all the teaching departments with the academic division.

The day begins with welcome and key messages. Formal karakia and the Ara waiata begin the proceedings with George Nelson – Deputy CE and the Ara management team leading the waiata. Hemi Hoskins, Head of Department explains the significance and meaning of the karakia.

George provides the welcome and details on the day’s activities. Plans for the event to continue into the future at the beginning of each semester. First activity based around the AIR theme from Araport with learners on a journey on the AIRplane. Vision shared on the way forward for the Ara education ecosystem. Overviewed the current and proposed the future, using airports as a metaphor. Need to move beyond what we currently offer, to be more flexible and agile – meeting needs for the working population to continually develop their skills and knowledge as the future of work evolves.  Ecosystem includes shifting to supporting enterprise / entrepreneurial opportunities, seminars and workshops from staff after professional development participation and as ‘thought leaders’. Detailed some of the current and planned activities going forward into the next few years.

Executive team updates follow through a series of ‘pods’ to be worked through. Tracey Berry our customer experiences DC provided an overview of her team’s work to support successful students. The involvement of students as co-creators of various processes and systems is the main approach. Then Tony Grey our CE provides summary of strategic direction through building and support of climate and culture, moving from good to great, forming and continuing community and belonging, increase responsiveness, innovation and sustainability. Belinda DCE for People and culture than summarises the stategy to empower our people for tomorrow’s world. Dean our Chief financial officer summarised his role in resourcing the many current and future initiatives. Te Marino Lenihan, Ara kairahi used the harakeke bush as the metaphor for the importance of supporting the improvement of success for Maori students.

Then a series of workshops 7 workshops convene. The workshops centre around AIR activities including assessment, programme evaluations, programme development, teaching and learning plans, and online teaching and learning.

I participate in the session on assessments, with Glynnis Brook, manager for portfolios and assurance and facilitated by fellow educational developer Jane Bates. The session was an opportunity to review the development of powerful and authentic assessments. Began with reiterating that assessment is for gathering information and also evaluation as the interpretation of the information gathered. A good discussion eventuated around the difference between summative and formative assessments and the need to explain the importance of formative assessments to students. Overviewed the principles of assessment and practice.

After lunch, two sessions of workshops of 45 minutes each follow.

In the first round, topics include developing cultural capability, getting started with research, AR/ VR, innovation, inquiry base teaching and the students’ portal MyAra App.

The second round of sessions include getting research published, e-assessments for learning, neuroscience of emotions, agile development of programmes, Microsoft tips.

Firstly, I joint facilitate the session on getting started with research with Dr. Isabel Jamieson from Nursing. We collect questions from the participants, sort them into ‘themes’ and workshop the answers, using the available institutional resources.

Then, facilitate the session on eassessments for learning  - as an output of the Ako Aotearoa and NZQA funded project. The session workshops using templates for designing assessments of learning and how to match the learning outcomes to the types of digital tools which are relevant to provide the most useful forms of feedback.

The event closes with a wrap up with George. Thank you to all the presenters and the planning team.

A good opportunity to network with colleagues from the different campuses and catch up progress on various projects completed over the last few years. Also important to reinforce the organisation messages and policies so that the institution is in a good position to connect with or critique the outcomes of the coming NZ Review of Vocational Education (ROVE) announcements.