Transforming honours for flexibility and fairness

Students who undertake honours within the Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty enroll in one of five distinct themes. However, prior to 2021, the coursework, research components, and workload were very much dependent on the theme the students were enrolled in. Therefore, the coursework might have been quite intense in one and not so intense in another. This lack of consistency and transparency meant the Honours program was not an equitable experience for students.

In 2021, the honours program was effectively redesigned. It now includes an innovative modular online instructional coursework program that is worth 25% and then there is a research component that is worth 75%. So now it doesn’t matter which theme students are enrolled in, everyone has to do this and has the same workload.

Research component

With the research component we thought, ‘let's make it as realistic as possible’. Now, instead of a thesis, we ask students to create a journal article manuscript. We model the submission requirements around a journal a student from that theme might submit their work to. We may make a few changes, such as formatting requirements, the number of figures, and the word count, to ensure consistency across the themes, but that is it. Just like a journal, students don’t put every single little thing that they learned or discovered during their honours year into that submission, only what is relevant and within scope.

Students still complete an oral assessment, but we have also incorporated an oral viva for all themes. It used to be that there were two themes that had a viva, which was pretty scary for those students. Now every student completes a viva, making assessment more equitable.

Coursework

We developed a suite of 11 modules that students can choose from. Each student completes three modules. This includes one compulsory research skills unit and two that are selected based on their research, in collaboration and consultation with the student’s supervisor.

To standardise module experience, each model is designed to have a number of similar elements. Every module has something to watch, read and do, embedded across the Own time, Real Time and Wrap up sections of Moodle.

In addition to that, there's a face-to-face workshop that all students need to attend as well. There is pre-work and then a workshop. In some of the more scientific or technical modules, that workshop is actually a laboratory or two.

The new program has been running for five years and we have trained 300 honours students in this program. It has been a huge transformation and we have also had an increase in the number of honours students enrolling in the program. Now all students experience the same workload, and their research and course work outputs are the same. The program is now as equitable as it can be. Further, some of these elements have been adopted at Melbourne University as well.

These positive outcomes are also reflected in student feedback about the redeveloped program.

Consultation

You want to make sure everybody at every level has a voice. We ran town hall meetings as it is really important to take on people's feedback. Town halls allowed people to come along and ask their questions, and then we would answer any questions, any concerns, and take feedback on.

Technical expertise

Drawing on expertise within your existing team can be really useful. For example, we had two wonderful unit coordinators who had been coordinating for quite some time and had extensive knowledge of the program. We also applied for internal grants, and so we hired a PhD student, which is fantastic because he had also completed honours here, and made the Moodle pages come alive.

I think it's very important to have people who are creative and enthusiastic to be part of the process. Also making sure, at the end of the day, you're always thinking about that learner and that learner's experience. We surveyed the students often, even after we had implemented the new honors program. That helped it become what it has become today. Finally, I think for us it was really important to have senior leadership behind this project. I think to having the support was key.