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

Abstract

T he Rangeland Management graduate coursework program at The University of Queensland is the product of a strategic response to a national need de ned in a report on Education and Training to

Support Sustainable Management of Australia’s Pastoral Indus- tries.1 This report identi ed that, despite the national impor- tance of the rangelands, there were no offerings speci cally 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 build- ing research capacity in these elds. However, the complex- ity 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 suc- cess,2 warranted a more integrated approach to the interlinked economic, environmental, and social issues in our rangelands. 

DOI: 10.2458/azu_rangelands_v34i3_taylor