Business, Economics and Law Management Consultant Briefing

This task embeds inclusive and authentic design by building on previous work (connected scaffolding), supporting student agency (choice of tourism operation and target market), encouraging creativity, and developing knowledge and skills needed to apply and explain the principles of visitor experience management. The task also gives students tangible artifacts to include in their work portfolios for interviews and sharing with future employers.

As an IOA, the Management Consultant Briefing provides an alternative to text-heavy assessment, i.e., students can express, demonstrate and represent learnings in different ways, aligned with Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles. In anticipating diversity by design, SAP accommodation requests can be reduced.

There are also advantages for marking, with teaching staff finding it more enjoyable and less time-consuming to assess the Management Consultant Briefing (e.g., compared to a text-heavy assignment). The professional conversation also provides teaching staff with an opportunity to ‘get to know’ their students and enhance students’ sense of course belonging.

Adjusting the weekly course delivery so that the assessment is incorporated directly into tutorials (see ‘Tips for implementation’).

• Scaffold the Management Consultant Briefing by providing students with resources (examples, templates) needed to benchmark their work.
• Give students opportunities to practice having professional conversations and provide formative feedback during tutorials.
• Adjust the weekly program so that the briefings occur during selected tutorials. In this course, for example, two weeks were allocated for assessing the IOA. While waiting for their IOA ‘turn’, students used their Management Consultant Briefing as a starting point for the next assessment task (a Facility Design Proposal).
• Set up a schedule (e.g., via Microsoft Bookings) for students to select a time slot for their professional conversation.

• LO2. Apply the key principles of visitor learning, interpretation and orientation to the design of visitor experiences.
• LO4. Develop strategies and recommendations for the management of visitor experiences in tourism, hospitality and event operations and destinations
• LO5. Critically evaluate a visitor experience using a range of evaluation tools and approaches.

This assessment is designed as an in-person IOA that supervises students through invigilation. The task is designed to ensure academic integrity through real-time discussion aligned with the learning outcomes of the task to confirm students have undertaken their own work and learning themselves. 

As an IOA, students attend in-person to discuss their work and answers questions from the ‘manager’ (i.e., course coordinator or tutor).