ABSTRACT

Learning contracts are sufficiently flexible in their application that they can provide an explicit structure and organizing framework for study. It takes into account academic and professional standards, and a means of responding to student diversity and a variety of learning needs in a way which gives students significant influence over their study. The main resource issues concerning how to make the learning contract approach work within an organizational context are time constraints, allocating staff time, and cost factors. The ability to manage one's time effectively is probably more important with a learning contract than with more prescribed assignments. In education at the University of Technology, Sydney, learning contracts are used as the main learning and assessment vehicle in a school funded at around the average level for schools of its type. This raises questions of the specific demands that learning contracts place on staff time and other institutional resources.