Leading learning design: Investigating program leaders' initial conceptions of graduate attributes

This paper reports on the perspectives of program leaders at a regional university, captured as they prepared to lead a program level curriculum renewal, driven by the introduction of a new set of graduate attributes. The aim of the research was to gain a deeper understanding of how program leaders anticipated leading changes to learning design by inviting them to reflect on the factors that impact on learning design in their program. The program leaders’ perspectives were gathered via interview and sought to engage with program leaders’ conceptualisation of their role as program leaders and their current understanding of graduate attributes in terms of perceived benefits and challenges. Barrie’s (2003) framework for understanding what graduate attributes are and how they can be developed was used as a theoretical framework when analysing the data. The analysis also examined program leaders’ views on what would constitute valid evidence of successful integration of graduate attributes into their program