Leveraging Agile Methodology to Transform a University Learning and Teaching Unit

Abstract

Student diversity and other contextual factors have placed increasing pressure on university academics to work harder, faster and in more innovative ways. Within Australian universities, the central Learning and Teaching Units (LTUs) are charged with the responsibility of improving the quality of education and providing academic development to educators to enhance curriculum, assessment, online education, and any and all other pedagogical matters. The heightened contextual demands that face academics, schools and faculties funnel into whole-of-university pressure on LTUs to prioritise, juggle, leverage and deliver outcomes with, and for, the student-facing academics and divisions. This chapter presents an annotated case study of an Australian LTU in which Agile methodology was successfully applied to achieve whole-of-institution quality improvement. The chapter authors, as members of the LTU team, share the theoretical underpinnings of their practice. The key takeaways are recommendations and strategies for heightening buy-in and active staff engagement, as well as how to clearly and transparently communicate to assure widespread adoption. The surprising outcome of the Agile approach was unexpected gains in confidence and self-efficacy described by numerous participating stakeholders. This chapter unpacks these unanticipated outcomes with retrospective recommendations for readers applying Agile approaches. While this case study features application of Agile methodology through a LTU within an Australian university, the authors have explicitly addressed areas in which recommendations apply to a range of other industries and sectors.