New names for learning activities in 2024: what you need to know
Starting in 2024, we’re renaming the learning activities for your units to make it clearer what kind of experience you’ll have with them. By following the DeakinDesign learning principles and practices, we’re making sure these terms have a shared meaning for all staff and students across each of Deakin’s platforms.
When will the terms change?
For the moment, your 2023 activities will remain the same, but keep an eye out for these terms being used in your University Handbook, unit guides and study timetables for 2024. Find out what these activities involve to better understand and decide on the units you want to study in 2024.
What’s changing?
We put together this helpful video to walk you through some of the changes.
Lectures
‘Classes’, the activities where teaching staff engage you through presentations with student participation, will be renamed back to ‘lectures’. It’s a classic – and many of you may have already been calling them lectures, so good job!
Seminars
‘Seminars’ and ‘problem-based learning’ will now just be known as ‘seminars’. In these, an educator will guide you in a smaller group of students through highly interactive discussions and activities.
Practical experiences and professional experiences
Your units may also include ‘practical experiences’ such as ‘laboratory‘, ‘workshops‘, ‘clinical skills‘ and more. These hands-on activities typically take place in specialised facilities with industry tools, equipment or technology to allow you to apply your knowledge practically.
‘Professional experiences‘ can include ‘placements‘, ‘studio time‘ or ‘field work‘ and focus on preparing you for the workplace.
Please note that your Handbook and unit guide will list the name of practical experiences and professional experiences in full with the type of experience in parentheses, such as ‘Practical experience (Laboratory)’. Your timetable may just list the subtype for the experience; for example, ‘Laboratory’.
Some other terms
- If you see a ‘meeting‘ in your timetable, this is an optional drop-in session.
- ‘Assessments‘ or ‘team-based learning‘ indicate an in-class evaluation of your skills or knowledge. A ‘pre-assessment practice‘ could be scheduled to prepare you for these assessments.
Find out more
Take a look at the Learning activities webpage for a full list of the terminology changes and reasons they were changed.