1. Journalism capstone units
Associate Professor Trevor Cullen
2015 National Teaching Fellow
Edith Cowan University

2. four aims of the fellowship
work with journalism educators and news editors
to design journalism capstone units
that demonstrate graduate skills and capabilities
and offer agreed principles and best practice

3. website

4. government national priorities in higher education - (AQF & TEQSA)
assure graduate outcomes
improve work integrated learning
enhance graduate employability

5. WHY (for JERAA) in line with higher education standards framework
provides consistency (across programs)
improves employability

6. OLT Fellowship project builds upon
2011 OLT project
Threshold learning outcomes for Journalism
knowledge
thinking skills
communication and tech skills
self management
integrity, ethics and responsibility
resourceful and reflective learning
2011 OLT project
Industry needs and graduate attributes
interviews with editors and academics
exposed wide variety of courses
affirmed tertiary based teaching
need for basic skills
work more with industry

7. focus of this project third-year journalism students
in 29 universities in Australia
enrolled in a journalism degree / major

8. Current situation students without proper skills set.
affects employment possibilities.
Consequences
Current courses
only 8 out of 29 tertiary journalism programs (officially) run capstone units.
others mainly rely on professional placements
emphasis on “acquire” rather than test and demonstrate skills and capabilities

9. Australian Qualification Framework
The revised AQF requires that under graduate and masters degrees are designed such that graduates can demonstrate the application of knowledge and skills "to plan and execute a substantial research-based project, capstone experience or piece of scholarship”.
Need to embed capstone component to meet the AQF requirement.

10. fellowship so far - Sept to Nov 2015
Activity
audit of 8 universities that run journalism capstone units
Interview questions
what is a capstone
principles
what do you do
Positives
pitfalls
Where
Monash
Melbourne
Swinburne
RMIT
Canberra
UTS
Sydney
Wollongong

11. professional placement
initial feedback
what is a capstone?
Common responses (n16)
transition unit (s)
rounds off degree
bring it all together
apply knowledge & skills
get students job ready
capstone units
3 types
newsroom simulation
professional placement
personal project
Most use 2 spread over 1 year

12. ALTF 2016 phase 2 phase 3 January – July 2016 1. more interviews
2. collate and analyse data
3. circulate discussion papers
phase 3
August – Dec 2016
1. use responses to build principles and best practice
2. disseminate and promote

13. Website

14. websites
Journalism capstone units Capstone curriculum Assuring Graduate capabilities

15. discussion questions some problems with capstones?
Feedback on your current situation
some problems with capstones?
what type of capstones do you run?
what knowledge and skills should be demonstrated in capstone units?
is it possible to agree on minimum standards?