Rising to the Challenge of Transforming Higher Education: Designing Universities for Learning and Teaching

Alan Bain · Lucia Zundans-Fraser

Dec 2015 · Springer

About this ebook

Creating a successful and distinctive approach to learning and teaching at scale is a challenge facing all universities. This brief presents the Self-Organizing University (SOU), a transformational whole-of-organization solution for the design, delivery, and evaluation of learning and teaching in all its forms. It describes the elements of the SOU approach along with the implementation process and expected outcomes. It also explains the rationale and research base for each element of the model and how they are connected to create a university-wide model of learning and teaching. It includes guidance for anyone responsible for institutional improvement in the learning and teaching space.

About the author

Alan Bain is Professor of Innovation in Learning, Teaching and Technology at Charles Sturt University. He has led comprehensive organisational change processes in various educational contexts, including higher education institutions and schools. He has held appointments at the University of Western Australia and Lehigh University and is the recipient of multiple competitive Faculty, University, State and National awards for his leadership and innovation, teaching, and research in the United States and Australia.
Lucia Zundans-Fraser is a Lecturer in the School of Teacher Education at Charles Sturt University. She is the recipient of two national, and multiple institutional, teaching excellence awards and has led a comprehensive organisational change process in higher education. Her research examines higher education course and subject design, inclusive education legislation and policy, pre-service teachers and their understandings of inclusion, and the useof evidence-based pedagogies in education.