Don't drop the ball! Implementing a team building approach to support learning in a first year decision-making course

Abstract

A systematic enquiry of Acct 102, Accounting and Finance for Business, was conducted in order to improve its quality and learning outcomes for stakeholders. The resulting action research analysis revealed three key themes, relevance, perceptions and support, which were used to design and implement an integrated package of interventions. While overall the interventions had a positive impact on student perceptions and the learning outcomes of the course, the tutorials, rebranded as industry perspective workshops, failed to meet their aim still being perceived as a low value aspect of the course and with continued low attendance. The project continues to focus on improving student perceptions and their link to improved learning outcomes (Biggs, 1985; Mladenovic, 2000; Ramsden, 1988). This nuts and bolts session follows up on the industry perspective workshop initiative, tracing the redesign process from an “at me” approach to the “team” approach for implementation in July 2008.