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=Institutional e-learning policies are guided by institutional learning objectives for all students. =

Evidence
Kidney, Cummings & Boehm (2007) describe the quality assurance strategies in place for e-learning courses at the University of Houston-Clear Lake. Courses that made use of their eight QA strategies reported high student satisfaction, those that did not use all the strategies rated on average one or more standard deviations below the mean satisfaction. They note that often course design and instruction processes are so intense that those involved lose sight of the big picture. Periodic phases of reflection are necessary to combat this and ensure that linkages to institutional objectives and strategic plans are in place. Barrie (2007) discusses the general consensus that graduate attributes as well as discipline specific content and skills are desired by universities and employers alike.

At an overarching level most institutions have a set of graduate attributes, which are skills., personal and professional qualities that are deemed desirable in successful graduates. “The majority of Australian universities have engaged with the processes of graduate attribute development in recognition of their responsibility to equip graduates with the attributes needed for lifelong learning in a rapidly changing world and workplace” (Thompson et al. 2008).

Graduate attributes are defined by the Higher Education Council Australia (1992) report Achieving Quality as “the skills, personal attributes and values which should be acquired by all graduates, regardless of their discipline or field of study. In other words, they should represent the central achievements of higher education as a process” (p. 20). It is important for the learning objectives from individual courses to link to these graduate objectives to ensure that students completing programs can see a path leading from individual assessments to ultimate employability. An important function of learning objectives is to link the activities students undertake on a day to day basis with the institution-wide graduate attributes.

Resources
James et al. (2004) have identified good teaching practice across the University of Wollongong and interviewed those teachers. They have compiled a website listing about 30 strategies for teaching the nine graduate attributes. Linking the teaching of course content to the concept of graduate attributes has enabled an ‘institutionally sanctioned promotion of good teaching practice’ (p. 9).