The AAUT, which stands for Australian Awards for University Teaching, was established in 1997 by the Australian government to celebrate and reward excellence in university teaching. This prestigious award is now well on their 25th year in celebrating higher education excellence and learning and teaching programs which have a positive impact on the student experience.
MonsoonSIM congratulates the Accounting Capstone for Employability Team, which consists of Deakin University Professors—Dr. Christine Contessotto (team leader), Dr. Edwin Lim, and Associate Professor Luckmika Perera—for earning the award Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning as part of the AAUT program.
This award recognizes these professors as being among Australia’s most exceptional university teachers with outstanding contribution to student learning and dedication to quality teaching, specifically recognized for developing a successful and impactful capstone unit for accounting students that embeds employability skills in authentic learning activities and assessments.
“The team are to be congratulated for their approach to introducing capstone experiences for accounting students which provide real world simulations and aim to drive the pedagogy, rather than be the pedagogy.” States the Australian Awards for University Teachings, “There are particular strengths in the way in which this curriculum has been driven by student and stakeholder engagement and has engaged with scholarly literature. The team has been recognized by their own University for their achievements and has disseminated their practices externally.”
Deakin University’s undergraduate capstone units exercise an innovative approach that scaffolds employability skills through authentic activities over the course of an 11-week unit. This learning experience for students balance an array of educational activities and assessments that acts as the foundation of the over-arching focus on professional skills, through four main components, namely Linking Theory to Practice (Week 1-3), Simulation Experience (Week 4-6), Career Preparedness and Employment Skills (Week 7), and Case Studies (Week 8-11).
MonsoonSIM’s business simulation and gamification education platform is integrated into the Simulation Experience component in Weeks 4-6. Working in a simulated environment enables the students to develop crucial professional skills, among them communication, problem solving, adaptability and teamwork. Additionally, students practice the experiential learning cycle of continuous feedback, practice and self-reflection.
Professor Liz Johnson, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic says, “Deakin is delighted to congratulate our award-winning team. Alongside the challenges of pivoting online to continue learning during the pandemic, our teaching teams have continued to develop and grow innovative solutions and learning designs.”
Aligned with Deakin University’s vision and the goals of the capstone experience, MonsoonSIM’s platform had been tailored to suit the activities, allowing the configuration of the number of business decisions, its complexity and the business environment itself. Each different scenarios, constraints and modules in each learning week constantly challenges students, the curriculum itself designed to engage the students into being critical thinkers and sharp decision-makers across 13 interrelated business departments. Furthermore, through MonsoonSIM, students can progress their professional skills in great strides, whether it be in managing a variety of accounting decisions based on financial, operational and market information.
“Our award winners this year have created a very successful capstone experience that links learning to practical application.” Professor Liz Johnson continues, “The focus on employability is particularly valuable to students and has been maintained throughout recent disruption. It is also terrific to see success for a teaching team who demonstrate collaboration at its very best.”
With that said, MonsoonSIM would like to congratulate Dr. Christine, Dr. Edwin and Associate Professor Luckmika once more for their well-deserved award, and is delighted to have been part of the capstone experience at Deakin University that the Australian Awards for University Teaching finds successful and innovative!
