The Landmarks Project: Designing a quality tool using student experience

It can be difficult to discern the place of student experience in the present academic quality framework that focuses on the alignment of designed unit and course outcomes with abstract quality standards through the collection of curriculum profile data. The problem may be fundamentally one of information design and this paper explores the use of Edward Tufte’s work to critique current practices and build interpretive tools which make the connection between governance frameworks and lived student experience. Reflecting on the establishment of the CQ University Business and Law School’s Landmarks Project, this paper suggests that an interpretive layer might be used to balance micro and macro concerns, to find a balance in the tension between quality objectives of standardisation and specification and to create a space where students might engage with and participate in the process.