Unit Coordinator

Murdoch University’s partner institutions are responsible for the nomination, appointment and employment of appropriate affiliate teaching staff to teach Murdoch University units as per the respective partnership agreements. Potential candidates are sourced by our partners and are put forward to the respective Deans (or their delegates) for assessment in a process that is usually completed in consultation with the relevant Unit Coordinators and Heads of Discipline as necessary. Discipline Leads in the Murdoch Singapore Office also often teach and/or Coordinate TNE offerings as required. 

A Two Stage Process

Affiliate selection is a two-stage process. Stage One involves the TNE Liaison Team compiling lists of previously approved affiliates to provide to Unit Coordinators to see if they are still appropriate to teach their respective unit(s). Often the affiliate pool for a given unit is satisfied by this step, as Partners are provided with a pool of pre-approved affiliates based on these previous approvals in order to promote continuity with teaching staff and limit new assessments. Stage Two involves any new affiliate assessments (if required). Partners source potential affiliates against a unit's Recruitment Guide and then propose the potential affiliates to the TNE Liaison Team who then liaise with the relevant parties to see if the proposed affiliate is appropriate for the suggested unit. 

Recruitment Guides

In order to assist our Partners in sourcing/recruiting appropriate affiliates to teach Murdoch units, the TNE Liaison Team has developed a Recruitment Guide. A comprehensive and detailed recruitment guide will assist partners in the earliest stages of the recruitment process, reducing the number of mismatched affiliate nominations for the Discipline to assess and decrease turn-around time on candidates submitted for assessment. For this reason it is important that Unit Coordinators are as thorough as possible when filling in the Recruitment Guide and review it periodically.

Recruitment Guide Outlines include:

• required qualifications;
• required teaching experience;
• required professional experience; and
• any knowledge, attributes and/or skills that are required to effectively deliver a unit (ie knowledge of particular software packages etc).

Prior to start of teaching

It is the responsibility of Unit Coordinators to communicate the teaching and learning expectations of their unit(s) as well as mentor, coach and assist with the professional development of Affiliate Lecturers. Any guidance in teaching and learning matters should include explicit guideline and instruction on:

• delivery methods
• assessment and standard of student work (including marking guides/rubrics); amount of feedback required on assignments; and consistency of approach to extension requests (it is strongly recommended that all extensions are handled by the Unit Coordinator)
• timeliness of assignment return; and
• information on discipline and culturally specific codes of conduct that facilitate the appropriate handling of student misdemeanours.
  

The Units Policy stipulates that the principal Unit Coordinator of a unit taught by affiliate staff must provide a unit specific teaching guide. While there is no prescribed format for such guides, suggested templates and further information is available from the Educational Development Unit website. For more information on Coordinator roles and responsibilities, please see the Units Policy and all of its attachments such as Unit Coordinator: Role Description in the Policy & Procedure Manager.

Communication between the Unit Coordinator and Affiliate Lecturer should ideally start as soon as the TNE Liaison teams provides Unit Coordinators with a deployment list, at least a month prior to the start of the teaching period. This is the time when the TNE Liaison team will organise LMS access for all affiliates. Communication can be via email, phone or Teams/Zoom as appropriate. While email may be the preferred mode of communication due to convenience and cost, face-to-face communication is encouraged to create close and productive teaching relationships. This has been continually demonstrated in TNE research as it provides better quality outcomes for academics, Affiliate Lecturers and students. The University uses Microsoft Teams as a teaching tool and it is a preferred mode of communication. For an overview of communication between the Unit Coordinator and Affiliate Lecturer, please go to Transnational Education: A Guide for Communication between Unit Coordinators and Affiliate Staff.

During Trimester

The Unit Coordinator is not only critical to the induction process of the Affiliate Lecturer but is also required to give ongoing support throughout the Trimester, so it is important that they are approachable and responsive to queries. They should maintain regular contact with the Affiliate Lecturer throughout the teaching period to ensure that they are carrying out their responsibilities in relation to teaching, marking and moderation. Unit Coordinators should also be available as a mentor and source of dispute resolution should issues occur amongst students and/or affiliates. If there are problems that cannot be resolved at this level, the Unit Coordinator should discuss solutions with the Head of Discipline or Dean as well as the TNE Liaison team so that they can liaise with the partner as required.

Student Enquiries

TNE students are Murdoch students in all respects regardless of location and it is not necessary to distinguish them from the general student body. They are governed by the same University legislation as other students and are therefore entitled to benefits comparable to those enjoyed by onshore students. For this reason it is important that TNE students have ongoing access to teaching staff. The first point of contact should always be the local Affiliate Lecturer, but students can also contact their Unit Coordinator after first consulting their Affiliate if need be. Both Murdoch staff and Affiliate staff will be responsible for making known their availability to TNE students, and the Unit Coordinator should provide guidance to local teaching staff in regard to student support. Individual assistance given should be given at a level consistent with the learning needs of the student cohort.

After Teaching

Once the marking, moderation and finalisation of final exams and/or assessments is complete, results must be tabulated/finalised and submitted to the Results team. Moderation reports must also be submitted to the Results Committee at the end of each teaching period by submitting an online moderation report. This is then tabled at the relevant Results Committee meeting for further discussion as required. 

For more information on the policy, rationale and process of moderation in TNE please see Formal Moderation.

While the current practice is for the Unit Coordinator to develop and supply all unit materials, it is recommended that the Unit Coordinator obtain input from the Affiliate Lecturers as well. Currently, the version of the unit run at the offshore location should be the same as that most recently delivered at the home campus. The TNE Delivery Model, however, recommends that units have exactly the same learning outcomes both onshore and offshore, while some content may vary.

Murdoch University’s contractual agreements with Transnational Partners require that all unit materials must be provided no less than four weeks before the commencement of the unit. It is also a requirement from Murdoch University’s contractual agreements with Transnational Partners that all unit materials be made available through LMS.

As a minimum, the unit materials delivered to Transnational Partners will consist of the following:

• A unit specific teaching guide
• Unit Information and Learning Guide, including session outline and activities;
• PowerPoint slides for lectures, if slides are used at South Street, or other support materials, as appropriate;
• Teaching notes, where necessary and available;
• Past examination papers (or an indication of where they can be found), where available; and
• Readings available on My Unit Readings.
  

The Affiliate Lecturer will rely on unit materials provided to effectively teach the unit. Unit materials such as a unit specific guide, slides, teaching notes and other support materials will enable the Affiliate Lecturer to adequately prepare and deliver the unit. The Unit Coordinator should also update unit materials such as the PowerPoint slides regularly. Further information about the preparation of these materials is available from the Teaching at Murdoch intranet page.

The materials should be in a non-editable format to ensure that no changes are made without consultation with, or permission of, the Unit Coordinator. It is important to ensure that units delivered at transnational locations are comparable across each offering, and that the Unit Coordinator retains control of all teaching materials used.

Any material that is subject to copyright should be lodged in My Unit Readings. Please see Copyright and Teaching at Murdoch for more information. 

The responsibility for ensuring that Unit Coordinators make necessary unit materials available remains with the School Dean.