Lessons learned from three projects to design learning environments that support 'generic' skills development

Efforts to ensure that graduates leave university with the skills needed for career wide lifelong learning have been the focus of much activity at universities both nationally and internationally for over a decade. In this paper, we describe three projects aimed at developing student skills as part of the discipline content in line with current theory and research. Projects required instructors to reflect on their current practice and, where necessary, to change learning environments from content to process oriented and from teacher to student centred, and to align learning outcomes, learning activities and assessment tasks. We describe each project and, using models of change management and the findings from investigations of teaching and learning innovations in Higher Education, identify the design features that supported or constrained each project’s success. Based on the lessons learned from these three projects and those of others reported in the literature, we make recommendations for the design of projects that will have a good chance of success in creating effective learning environments that support skill development.