Drivers and Outcomes of Innovations in Demand-Driven and Student-Centered Learning

Abstract

The Rangeland Management graduate coursework program at The University of Queensland is the product of a strategic response to a national need defined in a report on Education and Training to Support Sustainable Management of Australia’s Pastoral Industries. This report identified that, despite the national importance of the rangelands, there were no offerings specifically in rangeland management in Australia, and that the educational offerings available at the time were perceived by a wide range of stakeholders to be too narrow, of limited relevance, and “out of touch” with education and training needs. Typically, the focus of many such university programs in Australia has been on animal production or the environment, and on building research capacity in these fields. However, the complexity of many rangeland issues, the application of the science in management, and the growing emphasis on sustainability and interest in the “triple bottom line” of 21st century business success, warranted a more integrated approach to the interlinked economic, environmental, and social issues in our rangelands.