Expert awarded for creative curriculum design to teach complex content
A multi-disciplinary expert from CQUniversity has received a prestigious Australian Award for University Teaching (AAUT), for applying creative design practice to overcome learning challenges associated with complex subjects.
Dr Tasadduq Imam received a Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning by leveraging his vast skillset and background in computer science, engineering, and business management to develop creative curriculum design practices that improve student engagement and understanding of challenging finance subjects.
Dr Imam has applied these creative concepts to finance units to help students from different cultural, discipline and academic backgrounds understand complex subject matter.
The application of this design-led approach has helped to increase engagement with students who previously had limited experience or understanding of finance-related terms and practice.
Dr Imam said that his undergraduate and postgraduate students have differing levels of understanding, with many undertaking finance units as part of degrees in other disciplines such as law, accounting, engineering, property and even agriculture.
“This means students differ greatly when it comes to their existing knowledge of background concepts, academic experience and also their overall learning objectives – for example, a student studying law will have different needs and reasons for completing finance units compared to a student studying engineering," he said.
“Students’ academic abilities also differ greatly with some students struggling more with numerical concepts than others,” said Dr Imam.
“These diverse needs and requirements mean achieving a satisfactory learning experience in my teaching context is challenging."
To overcome this challenge Dr Imam set about understanding how his diverse student cohort perceived the themes covered within his units, and reimagined the learning resources used in his classroom.
“Aligning with my student-centric teaching philosophy, and informed by research, I have creatively reimagined unit curriculum design, resource and assessment development, and the feedback approach," he explained.
"This has led to an engaged learning experience and greater equity among students.
“During my teaching practice I have found that many students struggle with the mathematical concepts presented in traditional textbooks, for example, students regularly deem technical topics like annuities and bonds as difficult because the presentation of these topics in this manner does not conceptualise them in a practical sense or they feel overwhelmed by the technical aspects.
“Since 2015, I have designed my own resources, including slides and video lectures that substantially customise and extend conventional finance content, especially for my coordinated undergraduate unit. I have also created resources on the order of operation, logarithm, and scientific calculator use – these are things that my academically diverse students often struggle with and is background knowledge that finance textbooks rarely cover.
“In developing my resources, I set about aiming to reduce students’ cognitive load by helping them to understand the subject beyond just numbers.”
In applying a practical, design-based approach to his learning resources Dr Imam has achieved higher learner engagement results across both his on-campus and online student cohorts.
This approach has seen both student satisfaction and student success rates increase across his units, exceeding both school and sector-based benchmarks for similar units across multiple terms. Students also regularly deliver high praise for his creative resources, assessment design, and feedback approach in class.
The AAUT recognise the impact that educators have on the learning and teaching experiences and outcomes of university students.
They celebrate and reward programs and practices that support students and enhance learning. They promote excellence in learning and teaching in all aspects of higher education.
Recipients, with the support of their institutions, contribute to systemic change in learning and teaching through the ongoing sharing and dissemination of knowledge.
