REPORT FROM COURSES WORKING PARTY MEETING OF 16 DECEMBER 2002 ON

MASTER OF ADVERTISING

The Courses Working Party of Teaching and Learning Party met on 16 December 2002. The
Working Party consisted of:

• Dr Don Field, Director, Academic Policy and Programs (Convenor)

Representatives from the Faculty of Business were:

• Assoc Prof Jennifer Radbourne, Faculty of Business

Representatives from the Creative Industries Faculty were:

• Dr Wayne Hindsley, Creative Industries Faculty

External assessors’ reports were received from:

• Mark Grey
• Sue Rickerby
• Hugh Edwards

REPORT

The Courses Working Party is satisfied with the course in general but requests some
modifications to the documentation as listed below. The Working Party notes that the
documentation and unit outlines for the Creative Advertising strand have been prepared by a
consultant and that the Creative Industries Faculty will be advertising a full-time, ongoing
position to be filled by May 2003. The Working Party recognises that a number of issues
cannot be dealt with until the staff member has been appointed, and requests that the
Creative Industries Faculty make the new staff member aware of the Courses Working Party
report and address any outstanding issues.

1. Course Details and cover page

The Working Party noted that the documentation did not make it clear that the faculties were
proposing a single Masters degree with two possible Study Areas as opposed to two separate
Masters courses.

Action required: The cover sheet and course details page should show the course details
as follows:

1.1 Title of awards

Master of Advertising (Study Area A)

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1.3 Study Areas

Study Area A in Creative Advertising or Strategic Advertising.

2. Broader contextualisation

The Working Party noted the suggestion by external assessor Hugh Edwards that it was
important for students to understand the social context of advertising, and asked how the
course addressed not only the social context, but also the legal context and ethical issues.
The Faculty of Business responded that all staff were required to incorporate these issues
into all units, and this was often achieved through case studies. The Creative Industries
Faculty agreed that this also occurred to an extent, but not as systematically as in Business.

Action required:

(a) include a statement in the documentation indicating how social, legal, and ethical
issues are dealt with throughout the course; and
(b) consider expanding the list of possible electives to include relevant units in law,
politics, and the social sciences.

3. Industry interaction

The Working Party noted that there had been some criticism of the course from industry and
asked if the faculties had a plan in place to manage the relationship with industry. The
Creative Industries Faculty responded that a number of practitioners in the creative
advertising sector were supportive of the course. Both faculties responded that they would
also work through internships, functions, guest lecturers and by talking to industry groups.

Action required: A statement in the documentation regarding managing the relationship with
industry.

4. Internships

The Working Party questioned how the faculties would set up the internships and mentors for
the major project. The faculties responded that the details would need to be finalised after the
Creative Industries staff member was appointed, and that they recognised the need for
collaboration. The Faculty of Business noted that they currently run an internship program in
the undergraduate course and that they did have a process in place to manage this.

Action required: a statement in the documentation regarding the management of the

5. Collaborative Projects

The Working Party questioned how collaborative projects either with teams of students, or
through collaboration with an Advertising agency would be managed. The faculties agreed
that project teams sharing expertise in strategy and production was a new concept. The
Working Party agreed that this would be an innovative teaching strategy, but requested a
statement providing an explanation of faculty thinking to date on how this would occur.

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Action required: a statement in the documentation providing an explanation of collaborative
projects.

6. Course aims

The Working Party queried the meaning of the final sentence in Section 6.1 “These outcomes
are contextualised within an increasing understanding of the discipline of advertising rather
than an exclusive focus on an element of advertising practice”. The Faculty of Business
explained that theory and practice were inextricably bonded and rather than running a series
of theory units followed by separate practice units, the theory would inform all units.
Throughout the course the emphasis increasingly becomes the expression of theory shown
by the analytical capacity of the student. The Working Party noted that in the Creative
Advertising strand, the advanced level units seemed to cover advanced practice, which did
not correspond to the ideas portrayed in the Aims.

Action required: the last sentence of Section 6.1 be rewritten and/or added to.

7. Objectives

The Courses Working Party questioned whether the Objectives (p,12, section 6.2) should be
listed by Study Area as well as by course level. It was agreed that it was preferable to have
one set of Objectives for a course, but that the detail in some Objectives should be expanded.
For instance, dot point 2 under the Graduate Diploma “Expertise in the sub-discipline of
advertising in which they are interested” could be expanded to provide details of what
“expertise” means.

Action required: the Objectives should be reconsidered and expanded where necessary.

8. Graduate Capabilities

The Working Party noted the reference in the documentation to ‘professional standards’ but
noted the lack of detail regarding discipline-specific capabilities. The Faculty of Business said
this was mentioned on page 2 of the documentation but agreed that it could be more clearly
written under a separate section of “Graduate Capabilities”.

Action required: insert a section on Graduate Capabilities.

9. Entry standards

The Working Party queried why students with five or more years experience in the industry
should be directed into a Graduate Certificate which might seem too basic. The Faculty of
Business said it had always operated in this way, as it was considered important for students
with no previous University experience but only experience in industry practice, to be
educated in the discipline.

The Working Party questioned the statements under 7.2 Entry with advanced standing which
differed from the standard Advanced Entry requirements. The faculties agreed that this
statement should be removed.

Action required: remove the statement under 7.2 Advanced Standing.

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10. Teaching and Learning strategies

The Working Party questioned the statement under 1.6 that “There is a strong emphasis on
flexible delivery in the programme” and noted a lack of evidence of flexible delivery in the unit
outlines. The Creative Industries Faculty responded that a number of the units would be
offered at weekends and in block modes, but that online teaching aspects would be
developed later.

Action required:

(a) Translate the modes of study shown in Section 1.6 into teaching strategies in Section 9.0
Teaching, learning and assessment.
(b) explain what is meant by “examples of best practice”

11. Unit outlines

The Working Party made a number of suggestions regarding the unit outlines and requested
that these be passed to the new Creative Industries lecturer. The Working Party requested
that revised unit outlines should be provided to the Academic Policy and Programs Unit within
six weeks of the appointment of the new staff member.

The Working Party requested that the following comments be considered:

(a) Teaching and Learning Approaches

The Teaching and learning approaches could be improved. The same list is repeated in each
unit outline.

(b) Assessment

The formative and summative components of the assessment are not clear. Some outlines
indicate that drafts of assessment items will be marked, but it is not clear what component of
the marks has been allocated for this.

There is no indication of the criteria against which items will be assessed.

(c) Resource materials

The same long list of resource materials is provided with each unit outline. It might be
preferable to provide one or two specific items for each unit.

(d) KKN021 Advertising Creative: Introduction

A change in title could be considered to reflect the emphasis on print media in the unit.

(e) KKN026 Major Project

It might be preferable if students in the 24 credit point unit were required to consolidate their
reflections into one diary rather that two.

(f) KKN028 Internship

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This unit needs to be more carefully designed than it is at present. For instance the following
information is missing:

• the purpose of the unit (is it for students to get a better idea of where they want to work,
or to apply their skills)
• the expectations that students might engage in workplace learning and what they might
be expected to learn
• further detail for the aims of the unit – how is the internship a “bridge between the
university and the working world”, what exactly will it do for QUT and for industry?
• the length of the ‘on the job’ component, and if this is to be fitted into a 12 credit point
unit, will it provide a meaningful work experience?
• what sort of work the students might be expected to do (projects, work experience?)
• how the work will be managed by the unit coordinator?
• what will happen if students do not manage to find internships, and what help will be
offered to assist students in finding suitable internships?
• what is the ‘folio of work’ mentioned in the Teaching and Learning Approaches?

The Working Party requests that the faculties consider the following issues, but does not
require any changes to the documentation at this time.

12. Interaction with ETV

The Division of information and Academic Services emphasised the need for close
coordination with ETV regarding the use of ETV services to support students making
commercials. The Division noted that early coordination with ETV was essential to prevent
conflict with other ETV commitments.

Action required: Lecturing staff to liaise with ETV regarding student support.

13. Market Research

The Working Party noted that the documentation mentioned a report “Feedback on an
Advertising Creative discipline for QUT’s Creative Industries” which involved a survey of 28
industry professionals who had all responded positively to the proposed course. As the
Working Party had not had access to the report, they requested further details of the findings.
The Creative Industries Faculty explained that the survey had been undertaken early in the
development of the program before documentation was available, and said that an earlier
version of the course document had been circulated to industry in May 2002. The Faculty
provided responses for this second survey to the Working Party. The Faculty also mentioned
that they had recently sponsored the Brisbane Art Directors Annual General Meeting where
they had talked about the course and had again gained generally positive feedback.

The Working Party noted the concerns of some industry professionals expressed in the
reports from external assessors and the minutes of the School of Advertising, Marketing, and
Public Relations Advisory Committee. The Working Party recognised the dilemma of trying to
respond to the needs of industry while at the same time thinking ahead beyond the point
where industry is currently at. The Faculty of Business suggested that an academic institution
had an obligation to offer Advertising in a coherent fashion with commitments to the roots of
the discipline as well as to the future, in a way that is seen throughout the world as an
academically-credible course. While the commitment to industry was important, the
commitment to the discipline had to be of greater importance. They also noted that while

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industry might consider a postgraduate course to be taken by a senior advertising executive,
in fact may students were those wishing to specialise after their first degree.

The Working Party agreed that it understood why there was a lack of evidence in the market
research, and recommended that the course be reviewed two years after the first enrolments
in the course.

Action required: the course should be reviewed two years after the first enrolments.

14. Course Structure

The Working Party noted the comments in the School of Advertising, Marketing and Public
Relations Advisory Committee minutes from Prof Ewing suggesting that the statement in the
documentation that “strategy and creative are at opposite ends of the continuum” was “an
antiquated, 1960s view of Advertising”. The Faculty of Business responded that this wording
had been changed as a result of comments from the Advisory Committee meeting. The
Creative Industries Faculty noted that while practitioners in the industry did have a tendency
to choose to focus on either the strategy or the creative side of advertising, the course
recognised the importance of understanding both perspectives so that one group could
understand the problems encountered by the other. The Working Party noted that this was
dealt with in the course structure through the core units which looked at the way strategy and
planning feed into creativity and vice-versa, and also through the capstone unit in
Contemporary Issues which is taught by staff from both faculties. The Working Party
suggested that this might be further enhanced by a jointly taught unit earlier in the program.

Action required: faculties to consider a jointly taught unit earlier in the program.

15. Postgraduate Units

The Working Party questioned how the faculties could show that the units were postgraduate
in level. The faculties noted that the courses were postgraduate in time, and introduced a
new area of study. The core units did not have undergraduate equivalents, and where
electives did have undergraduate equivalents, they had postgraduate codes, unit outlines and
assessment, but might share some lectures.

No action required.