The MQBS Postgraduate Certificate Scholarships scheme supports professional staff to develop their management capability.

Find out more about the selection criteria and information on how to apply here.

Professional Staff Development Grants provide financial support for individual staff members or team members to develop knowledge, skills and experience through external providers or programs that directly support performance in their current role.

Find out more about the selection criteria and information on how to apply here.

For further information please contact develop@mq.edu.au

As such, we’ll be implementing a reinvigorated performance and development review process, underpinned by the ‘Talent and Performance’ functionality in Workday. Here, Nicole Gower, Vice-President People and Services, takes you through the changes.

Following broad consultation across the Macquarie University community, including academic and professional staff, hospital and clinical staff, and staff in Campus Life, we have now developed an improved PDR process to facilitate this for all our staff.

Our current Performance and Development Review (PDR) will be re-named the Development and Performance Review (DPR). We wanted to place the emphasis on having conversations not only about performance but also about what development is required to help our staff achieve their goals and support career aspirations. The Academic DPR has been designed to align with the new academic promotion criteria. Professor Lesley Hughes (member of the Our People board and lead on the Academic DPR Workday Project) says “the new system has been designed around the concept that if the university prioritises and supports staff development, excellent performance will follow”.

We’ll be underpinning the new DPR process with new capabilities in Workday such as the employee ‘Talent Profile’. This is essentially an online resume – listing your skills, education and career experience – similar to an internal ‘LinkedIn’ profile.

Workday will also enable leaders and managers to cascade goals to staff, eliminating the need to develop custom DPR templates for different parts of the organisation as priorities change over time.

Training will be conducted during October in preparation for the launch of the new DPR and Talent Profile capabilities in November, with dedicated sessions to be run for academic and professional employees and MQ Health staff. Please look out for communications and information in coming weeks as we prepare for the launch.

For more information about these changes, please refer to the Workday FAQs page or email workday@mq.edu.au.

Luckily, Macquarie staff has free access to Lynda.com, an online learning platform by LinkedIn that offers thousands of video tutorials on a huge range of professional and technical skills. You can find courses that are perfectly matched to your job, interests and skill level – Lynda.com can even suggest courses to you based on your LinkedIn profile.

And the best part? The video presenter format means you can learn anywhere – on your morning train, listening in the car or on the treadmill via your smartphone. You can fit your professional development in, wherever your life takes you.

We sent UBar Manager Moe Shakourof on a mission to try Lynda.com for the first time.

I first heard of Lynda.com through my manager and our Human Resources manager. I thought it was a great idea and a great tool I could use to further my knowledge.

Where to start?

Before logging into Lynda, I sat down and made a list of topics that I was interested in, which included marketing, communication, computer skills and leadership.  (In the end, after exploring the site I also found that a whole lot of things I didn’t even know I had an interest in!)

First impressions

My first impression of the website was that there is quite a lot of information to take in. But the platform made it super easy for me to navigate and find something I was interested in.  The search function was easy to use and although I initially had some trouble finding the ‘recommended’ section (where you enter your interests and Lynda suggests courses based on these interests), it ended up being a very handy function.

Completing the courses

I used Lynda.com in various settings. Whenever I found some spare time at work, I would watch courses and at home I’d try to go over some of the content every week.

I completed some courses in Excel, as well as some marketing courses (including a great one called Marketing to Millennials – very handy for understanding Macquarie students!) and some on Photoshop.

Any downsides?

I was a little overwhelmed at first with all the information available. I was hoping there would a scheduler of some sorts – it would be nice if there was a feature where you could set up notifications reminding you to complete a section/full course.

The verdict

Overall, Lynda is a great tool that I think everyone at Macquarie should check out, whether they want to learn basic how to’s or build on their existing level of knowledge. It’s super easy to use and really beneficial, with its very wide range of topics and categories. It’s like your own personal university!

Every time I used Lynda, I felt motivated and happy knowing that I have such a great resource available to me, and I plan to continue to use Lynda whenever things are calm for me at work.

Ready to start exploring Lynda.com? Login by selecting ‘sign in with your organizational portal’, enter ‘mq.edu.au’ and then your OneID details.

A playlist of suggested Lynda courses can be found on the Workshops and Online Resources section of our Staff Development website. This playlist is based on topics that are popular with Macquarie staff, including communication skills, interpersonal skills, project management, management and leadership, and health and wellbeing.

Rollout of Lynda.com is being jointly managed by the Learning Innovation Hub and the Library.

Pro Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Teaching) Professor Sherman Young explains: “Lynda.com aligns with our strategic vision of creating innovative learning experiences for our students that encompass informal learning, the development of a connected learning community, and our focus on employability.”

What’s the deal?
The University’s site-wide licence provides unlimited access for all staff and students (a subscription would normally cost you about $35 a month). As well as watching videos, you can create and share playlists with other Macquarie staff and students. You can access from anywhere – campus, home or mobile.

Some ways you can use Lynda.com

• Improve your work related skills in IT and other professional learning and development topics.
• Be creative and explore new subjects or life skills.
• Help your students improve essential software skills, like Excel.
• Provide a playlist to students on presentation skills ahead of a class presentation.
• Use the videos to help you redesign a unit with a Flipped Classroom approach.
• For teaching staff, you can add a link to a Lynda.com video in iLearn, just as you would any other url.

How do I start?

1. Go to Lynda.com
2. Click on Sign In and then select Sign in with your organisation
3. Enter Macquarie’s URL mq.edu.au
4. Enter your Macquarie OneID and password

For subsequent access on the same device simply go to Lynda.com and login with your Macquarie OneID and Password. Lynda.com videos are also available from the Library’s search system MultiSearch.  For further help and resources go to libguides.mq.edu.au/lynda

Who do I contact for more information?

The Lynda rollout is being jointly managed by the Learning Innovation Hub and the Macquarie University Library. Contact lucy.arthur@mq.edu.au or fiona.burton@mq.edu.au.