Communication Skills in University Education Conference
CSUE 2002
3rd - 4th October 2002
University of New South Wales
Sydney
Australia |
The CSUE Conference is a 2-day national event occurring biennially, attracting up to 200 forward thinking lecturers, staff development officers, and learning development staff. CSUE 2002 was a 'working conference', held at UNSW in 'Open Space Format' where round-table discussion among each session's attendees replaced formal presentations. In this new format, CSUE 2002 involved delegates in stimulating debate and discussion with their peers on topics of their own choosing.
What is 'Open Space Format'?
'In Open Space meetings, participants create and manage their own agenda of parallel working sessions around a central theme'. Visit the Worldwide Open Space web site for more information.
How the CSUE 2002 conference worked:
l The programme of conversation sessions was designed by the delegates each morning of the conference
l Outcomes of the conversations were publicly posted each evening and later mounted on SkillCity
l There was no formal presentation of papers, just dialogue on topics chosen by the delegates
Discussion Themes:
l Teamwork and groupwork
l Evaluation and assessment
l Generic skills
l Interactive teaching and learning websites
l What is wrong with groupwork in higher education?
l Internet resources for communication
l Intellectual property rights and on-line resources
l How do you give a colleague credit when you use their teaching approach?
Papers
All written 'papers' were submitted to -- and reviewed on -- the SkillCity web site. SkillCity is a government-funded web site designed to assist lecturers across the disciplines in sharing teaching materials in the area of communication skills. Conference submissions on learning activities that develop students' communication skills were encouraged. Suggested materials included a description of a 20-minute groupwork activity that lecturers could try or a 5-page case study of a university-wide program incorporating generic skills. More traditional case studies or relevant theoretical explorations were also accepted. The conference 'proceedings' form part of SkillCity's existing database. These and the write-ups of the actual discussions that took place at CSUE 2002 were also published as a CD-ROM, SkillCity Yearbook 5: The CUTSD/AUTC Communication Skills Project 1997-2002 (ISBN 0-9750164-0-7). To request extracts, or a copy of the CD, please write to: willrifkin@unsw.edu.au
Delegate Feedback
For reflections and comments by the delegates and organisational committee on CSUE 2002, please go to the CSUE 2002 Bulletin Board in the SkillCity materials database.
This page was last updated on 08/09/2003
